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THE WORKS OF
HERMAN MELVILLE
STANDARD EDITION
VOLUME
VII
MOBY- DICK
OR, THE WHALE
BY
HERMAN MELVILLE
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I
CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LTD
LONDON BOMBAY SYDNEY
1922
Ps
Printed in Great Britain by T. and A. CONSTABLE LTD
at the Edinburgh University Press
IN TOKEN
OF MY ADMIRATION FOB HIS GENIUS
THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED
TO
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. LOOMINGS . 1
II. THE CARPET-BAG ...... 8
III. THE SPOUTER-INN . . . . . . 13
IV. THE COUNTERPANE . . . . . 31
V. BREAKFAST ...... 36
VI. THE STREET . . . . . 39
VII. THE CHAPEL . . . . . . 42
VIII. THE PULPIT ....... 46
IX. THE SERMON ...... 49
X. A BOSOM FRIEND ...... 60
XI. NIGHTGOWN 65
XII. BIOGRAPHICAL ...... 68
XIII. WHEELBARROW . . . . . . 71
XIV. NANTUCKET ....... 77
XV. CHOWDER ....... 80
XVI. THE SHIP . 84
XVII. THE RAMADAN ...... 102
XVHI. HIS MARK ....... 110
XIX. THE PROPHET . . . . . .115
XX. ALL ASTIR ....... 119
XXI. GOING ABOARD ...... 122
XXII. MERRY CHRISTMAS . . . . .126
XXIII. THE LEE SHORE . . . . . .132
XXIV. THE ADVOCATE . . . . . .134
XXV. POSTSCRIPT . . . . . 140
XXVI. KNIGHTS AND SQUIRES . . . .141
XXVII. KNIGHTS AND SQUIRES .... 145
XXVIII. AHAB ....... 151
vii
viii MOBY-DICK
CHAP. PAGE
XXIX. ENTER AHAB ; TO HIM, STUBB . . .156
XXX. THE PIPE ...... 160
XXXI. QUEEN MAB 161
XXXII. CETOLOGY . . . . . .164
XXXIII. THE SPECKS YNDER 180
XXXIV. THE CABIN -TABLE 184
XXXV. THE MAST-HEAD . . . . .191
XXXVI. THE QUARTER-DECK ..... 199
XXXVII. SUNSET . . . . . . . 209
XXXVIII. DUSK 211
XXXIX. FIRST NIGHT-WATCH . . . . .213
XL. MIDNIGHT, FORECASTLE . . . .214
XLI. MOBY-DICK ...... 222
XLII. THE WHITENESS OF THE WHALE . . 234
XLIII. HARK! 245
XLIV. THE CHART ...... 247
XLV. THE AFFIDAVIT ...... 254
XLVI. SURMISES 265
XLVII. THE MAT-MAKER 269
XLVIII. THE FIRST LOWERING . . . . . 273
XLIX. THE HYENA ...... 286
L. AHAB'S BOAT AND CREW. FED ALLAH . . 289
LI. THE SPIRIT-SPOUT 293
MI. THE ALBATROSS ...... 298
Mil. THE GAM 301
LIV. THE TOWN-HO'S STORY 306
LV. OF THE MONSTROUS PICTURES OF WHALES . 331
LVI. OF THE LESS ERRONEOUS PICTURES OF WHALES 337
LVII. OF WHALES IN PAINT, IN TEETH, ETC. . 342
LVIII. BRIT 346
LIX. SQUID 350
LX. THE LINE . 353
MOBY-DICK
OR
THE WHALE
ETYMOLOGY
(SUPPLIED BY A LATE CONSUMPTIVE USHER TO
A GBAMMAB SCHOOL)
THE pale Usher threadbare in coat, heart, body, and brain ;
I see him now. He was ever dusting his old lexicons and
grammars, with a queer handkerchief, mockingly embellished
with all the gay flags of all the known nations of the world.
He loved to dust his old grammars ; it somehow mildly
reminded him of his mortality.
ETYMOLOGY
' WHILE you take in hand to school others, and to teach
them by what name a whale-fish is to be called in our tongue,
leaving out, through ignorance, the letter H, which almost
alone maketh up the signification of the word, you deliver
that which is not true.' Hakluyt.
1 WHALE. * * * Sw. and Dan. hval. This animal is
named from roundness or rolling ; for in Dan. hvalt is arched
or vaulted.' Webster's Dictionary.
' WHALE. * * * It is more immediately from the Dut.
and Ger. W alien ; A.S. Walw-ian y to roll, to wallow.'
Richardson's Dictionary.
Hebrew.
Greek.
Latin,
Anglo-Saxon.
Danish.
Dutch.
Swedish.
Icelandic.
English.
in,
CETUS,
WHCEL,
HVALT,
WAL,
HWAL,
WHALE,
WHALE,
BALEINE,
BALLENA,
PEKEE-NUEE-NUEE,
PEHEE-NUEE-NUEE,
French.
Spanish.
Feegee.
Erromangoan.
EXTRACTS
(SUPPLIED BY A SUB-SUB-LIBRARIAN)
IT will be seen that this mere painstaking burrower and
grub -worm of a poor devil of a Sub -Sub appears to have gone
through the long Vaticans and street-stalls of the earth, pick-
ing up whatever random allusions to whales he could anyways
find in any book whatsoever, sacred or profane. Therefore
you must not, in every case at least, take the higgledy-piggledy
whale statements, however authentic, in these extracts, for
veritable gospel cetology. Far from it. As touching the
ancient authors generally, as well as the poets here appearing,
these extracts are solely valuable or entertaining, as affording
a glancing bird's-eye view of what has been promiscuously
said, thought, fancied, and sung of Leviathan, by many
nations and generations, including our own.
So fare thee well, poor devil of a Sub-Sub, whose commen-
tator I am. Thou belongest to that hopeless, sallow tribe
which no wine of this world will ever warm ; and for whom
even Pale Sherry would be too rosy-strong ; but with whom
one sometimes loves to sit, and feel poor-devilish, too ; and
grow convivial upon tears ; and say to them bluntly with full
eyes and empty glasses, and in not altogether unpleasant
sadness Give it up, Sub-Subs ! For by how much the more
pains ye take to please the world, by so much the more shall
ye forever go thankless ! Would that I could clear out
Hampton Court and the Tuileries for ye ! But gulp down
your tears and hie aloft to the royal-mast with your hearts ;
for your friends who have gone before are clearing out the
seven-storied heavens, and making refugees of long-pampered
Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael, against your coming. Here
ye strike but splintered hearts together there, ye shall
strike unsplinterable glasses!
xii
EXTRACTS
' And God created great whales.'
Genesis.
* Leviathan maketh a path to shine after him ;
One would think the deep to be hoary.'
Job.
' Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up
Jonah.' Jonah.
' There go the ships ; there is that Leviathan whom thou
hast made to play therein.' Psalms.
' In that day, the Lord with his sore, and great, and strong
sword, shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent, even
Leviathan that crooked serpent ; and he shall slay the dragon
that is in the sea.' Isaiah.
* And what thing soever besides cometh within the chaos
of this monster's mouth, be it beast, boat, or stone, down it
goes all incontinently that foul great swallow of his, and
perisheth in the bottomless gulf of his paunch.'
HollancFs Plutarch's Morals.
' The Indian Sea breedeth the most and the biggest fishes
that are : among which the Whales and Whirlpooles called
Balaene, take up as much in length as four acres or arpens of
land.' Holland's Pliny.
' Scarcely had we proceeded two days on the sea, when
about sunrise a great many Whales and other monsters of
the sea, appeared. Among the former, one was of a most
monstrous size. * * * This came towards us, open-
mouthed, raising the waves on all sides, and beating the sea
before him into a foam.'
Tooke's Lucian. The True History.
xiii
xiv MOBY-DICK
' He visited this country also with a view of catching horse -
whales, which had bones of very great value for their teeth,
of which he brought some to the king. * * * The best
whales were catched in his own country, of which some were
forty-eight, some fifty yards long. He said that he was one
of six who had killed sixty in two days.'
Other or Octher's verbal narrative taken down
from his mouth by King Alfred, A.D. 890.
1 And whereas all the other things, whether beast or vessel,
that enter into the dreadful gulf of this monster's (whale's)
mouth, are immediately lost and swallowed up, the sea-
gudgeon retires into it in great security, and there sleeps.'
Montaigne 1 s Apology for Eaimond Sebond.
' Let us fly, let us fly ! Old Nick take me if it is not
Leviathan described by the noble prophet Moses in the life
of patient Job.' Rabelais.
' This whale's liver was two cart-loads.'
Stowe's Annals.
1 The great Leviathan that maketh the seas to seethe like
boiling pan.' Lord Bacon's Version of the Psalms.
' Touching that monstrous bulk of the whale or ork we
have received nothing certain. They grow exceeding fat,
insomuch that an incredible quantity of oil will be extracted
out of one whale.' Ibid. History of Life and Death.
1 The sovereignest thing on earth is parmacetti for an in-
ward bruise.' King Henry.
' Very like a whale.' Hamlet.
' Which to secure, no skill of leach's art
Mote him availle, but to returne againe
To his wound's worker, that with lowly dart,
Dinting his breast, had bred his restless paine,
Like as the wounded whale to shore flies thro' the maine.'
The Fairie Queen.
' Immense as whales, the motion of whose vast bodies can
in a peaceful calm trouble the ocean till it boil.'
Sir William Davenant's Preface to Gondibert.
EXTRACTS xv
' What spermaceti! is, men might justly doubt, since the
learned Hosmannus in his work of thirty years, saith plainly,
Nescio quid sit.'
Sir T. Browne's Of Sperma Ceti and the
Sperma Ceti Whale. Vide his V.E.
' Like Spencer's Talus with his modern flail
He threatens ruin with his ponderous tail.
******
Their fixed jav'lins in his side he wears,
And on his back a grove of pikes appears.'
Waller's Battle of the Summer Islands.
' By art is created that great Leviathan, called a Common-
wealth or State (in Latin, Civitas) which is but an artificial
man.' Opening sentence of Hobbes's Leviathan.
'Silly Mansoul swallowed it without chewing, as if it had
been a sprat in the mouth of a whale.'
Pilgrim's Progress.
* That sea beast
Leviathan, which God of all his works
Created hugest that swim the ocean stream.'
Paradise Lost.
4 There Leviathan,
Hugest of living creatures, in the deep
Stretched like a promontory sleeps or swims,
And seems a moving land ; and at his gills
Draws in, and at his breath spouts out a sea.'
Ibid.
' The mighty whales which swim in a sea of water, and
have a sea of oil swimming in them.'
Fuller's Profane and Holy State.
' So close behind some promontory lie
The huge Leviathans to attend their prey,
And give no chace, but swallow in the fry,
Which through their gaping jaws mistake the way.'
Dry den's Annus Mirabilis.
' While the whale is floating at the stern of the ship, they
cut off his head, and tow it with a boat as near the shore as it
will come ; but it will be aground in twelve or thirteen feet
water.'
Thomas Edge's Ten Voyages to Spitzbergen, in Purchas.
xvi MOBY-DICK
* In their way they saw many whales sporting in the ocean,
and in wantonness fuzzing up the water through their pipes
and vents, which nature has placed on their shoulders.'
Sir T. Herberts Voyages into Asia and Africa. Harris Coll.
4 Here they saw such huge troops of whales, that they were
forced to proceed with a great deal of caution for fear they
should run their ship upon them.'
Schouten's Sixth Circumnavigation.
* We set sail from the Elbe, wind N.E. in the ship called
The Jonas-in-the-Whale. * * *
Some say the whale can't open his mouth, but that is a
fable. * * *
They frequently climb up the masts to see whether they
can see a whale, for the first discoverer has a ducat for his
pains. * * *
I was told of a whale taken near Shetland, that had above
a barrel of herrings in his belly. * * *
One of our harpooneers told me that he caught once a
whale in Spitzbergen that was white all over.'
A Voyage to Greenland, A.D. 1671. Harris Coll.
' Several whales have come in upon this coast (Fife). Anno
1652, one eighty feet in length of the whale -bone kind came
in, which, (as I was informed) besides a vast quantity of oil,
did afford 500 weight of baleen. The jaws of it stand for a
gate in the garden of Pitferren.'
Sibbald's Fife and Kinross.
4 Myself have agreed to try whether I can master and kill
this Sperma-ceti whale, for I could never hear of any of that
sort that was killed by any man, such is his fierceness and
swiftness.'
Richard Strafford's Letter from the Bermudas.
Phil. Trans. A.D. 1668.
' Whales in the sea
God's voice obey.'
N. E. Primer.
1 We saw also abundance of large whales, there being more
in those southern seas, as I may say, by a hundred to one ;
than we have to the northward of us.'
Captain Cowley's Voyage round the Globe, A.D. 1729.
EXTRACTS xvii
****** an( j ^e breath of the whale is fre-
quently attended with such an insupportable smell, as to
bring on a disorder of the brain.'
Ulloa's South America.
1 To fifty chosen sylphs of special note,
We trust the important charge, the petticoat.
Oft have we known that seven-fold fence to fail,
Tho' stuffed with hoops and armed with ribs of whale.'
Rape of the Lock.
' If we compare land animals in respect to magnitude, with
those that take up their abode in the deep, we shall find they
will appear contemptible in the comparison. The whale is
doubtless the largest animal in creation.'
Goldsmith's Nat. Hist.
' If you should write a fable for little fishes, you would
make them speak like great whales.'
Goldsmith to Johnson.
' In the afternoon we saw what was supposed to be a rock,
but it was found to be a dead whale, which some Asiatics had
killed, and were then towing ashore. They seemed to en-
deavour to conceal themselves behind the whale, in order to
avoid being seen by us.' Cook's Voyages.
' The larger whales, they seldom venture to attack. They
stand in so great dread of some of them, that when out at
sea they are afraid to mention even their names, and carry
dung, lime-stone, juniper-wood, and some other articles of
the same nature in their boats, in order to terrify and prevent
their too near approach.'
Uno Von Troil's Letters on Banks' s and
Solander's Voyage to Iceland in 1772.
' The Spermacetti Whale found by the Nantuckois, is
an active, fierce animal, and requires vast address and bold-
ness in the fishermen.'
Thomas Jefferson's Whale Memorial to the
French Minister in 1778.
1 And pray, sir, what in the world is equal to it ? '
Edmund Burke's Reference in Parliament
to the Nantucket Whale Fishery.
VOL. I. b
xviii MOBY-DICK
' Spain a great whale stranded on. the shores of Europe.'
Edmund Burke. (Somewhere.}
' A tenth branch of the king's ordinary revenue, said to
be grounded on the consideration of his guarding and pro-
tecting the seas from pirates and robbers, is the right to
royal fish, which are whale and sturgeon. And these, when
either thrown ashore or caught near the coast, are the pro-
perty of the king.' Blackstone.
c Soon to the sport of death the crews repair :
Rodmond unerring o'er his head suspends
The barbed steel, and every turn attends.'
Falconer's Shipwreck.
' Bright shone the roofs, the domes, the spires,
And rockets blew self driven,
To hang their momentary fire
Around the vault of heaven.
' So fire with water to compare,
The ocean serves on high,
Up-spouted by a whale in air,
To express unwieldy joy.'
Cowper, On the Queen's Visit to London.
' Ten or fifteen gallons of blood are thrown out of the heart
at a stroke, with immense velocity.'
John Hunter's Account of the Dissection
of a Whale. (A small-sized one.)
' The aorta of a whale is larger in the bore than the main
pipe of the water- works at London Bridge, and the water
roaring in its passage through that pipe is inferior in impetus
and velocity to the blood gushing from the whale's heart.'
Paley's Theology.
' The whale is a mammiferous animal without hind feet.'
Baron Cuvier.
' In 40 degrees south, we saw Spermacetti Whales, but did
not take any till the first of May, the sea being then covered
with them.'
Colnett's Voyage for the Purpose of Extending
the Spermacetti Whale Fishery.
EXTRACTS xix
' In the free element beneath me swam,
Floundered and dived, in play, in chace, in battle,
Fishes of every colour, form, and kind ;
Which language cannot paint, and mariner
Had never seen ; from dread Leviathan
To insect millions peopling every wave :
Gather'd in shoals immense, like floating islands,
Led by mysterious instincts through that waste
And trackless region, though on every side
Assaulted by voracious enemies,
Whales, sharks, and monsters, arm'd in front or jaw,
With swords, saws, spiral horns, or hooked fangs.'
Montgomery' '<$ World before the Flood.
' lo ! Paean ! lo ! sing,
To the finny people's king.
Not a mightier whale than this
In the vast Atlantic is ;
Not a fatter fish than he,
Flounders round the Polar Sea.'
CJiarles Lamb's Triumph of the Whale.
' In the year 1690 some persons were on a high hill observing
the whales spouting and sporting with each other, when one
observed ; there pointing to the sea is a green pasture
where our children's grand-children will go for bread.'
Obed Macy's History of Nantucket.
' I built a cottage for Susan and myself and made a gateway
in the form of a Gothic Arch, by setting up a whale's jaw
bones.' Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales.
' She came to bespeak a monument for her first love, who
had been killed by a whale in the Pacific ocean, no less than
forty years ago.' Ibid.
' " No, Sir, 'tis a Right Whale," answered Tom ; " I saw his
spout ; he threw up a pair of as pretty rainbows as a Christian
would wish to look at. He 's a raal oil-butt, that fellow ! " '
Cooper's Pilot.
' The papers were brought in,, and we saw in the Berlin
Gazette that whales had been introduced on the stage there.'
Eckermanris Conversations with Goethe.
xx MOBY-DICK
' " My God ! Mr. Chace, what is the matter ? " I answered,
" We have been stove by a whale." !
Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Whale Ship
Essex of Nantucket, which was attacked and
finally destroyed by a large Sperm Whale in
the Pacific Ocean. By Owen Chace of Nan-
tucket, first mate of said vessel. New York,
1821.
' A mariner sat in the shrouds one night,
The wind was piping free ;
Now bright, now dimmed, was the moonlight pale,
And the phospher gleamed in the wake of the whale,
As it floundered in the sea.'
Elizabeth Oakes Smith.
' The quantity of line withdrawn from the different boats
engaged in the capture of this one whale, amounted alto-
gether to 10,440 yards or nearly six English miles. * * *
t Sometimes the whale shakes its tremendous tail in the
air, which, cracking like a whip, resounds to the distance of
three or four miles.' Scoresby.
1 Mad with the agonies he endures from these fresh attacks,
the infuriated Sperm Whale rolls over and over ; he rears his
enormous head, and with wide expanded jaws snaps at every-
thing around him ; he rushes at the boats with his head ;
they are propelled before him with vast swiftness, and some-
times utterly destroyed.
* * * It is a matter of great astonishment that the
consideration of the habits of so interesting, and, in a com-
mercial point of view, of so important an animal (as the Sperm
Whale) should have been so entirely neglected, or should have
excited so little curiosity among the numerous, and many of
them competent observers, that of late years must have
possessed the most abundant and the most convenient oppor-
tunities of witnessing their habitudes. 5
Thomas Beale's History of the Sperm Whale. 1839.
' The Cachalot ' (Sperm Whale) ' is not only better armed
than the True Whale ' (Greenland or Right Whale) ' in possess-
ing a formidable weapon at either extremity of its body,
but also more frequently displays a disposition to employ
these weapons offensively, and in a manner at once so artful,
EXTRACTS xxi
bold, and mischievous, as to lead to its being regarded as the
most dangerous to attack of all the known species of the
whale tribe.'
Frederick Debell Bennett's Whaling Voyage
round the Globe. 1840.
' October 13. " There she blows," was sung out from the
mast-head.
" Where away ? " demanded the captain.
" Three points off the lee bow, sir."
" Raise up your wheel. Steady ! "
" Steady, sir."
" Mast-head ahoy ! Do you see that whale now ? "
" Ay, ay, sir ! A shoal of Sperm Whales ! There she
blows ! There she breaches ! "
" Sing out ! sing out every time ! "
" Ay, ay, sir ! There she blows ! there there thar she
blows bowes bo-o-o-s ! "
" How far off ? "
c< Two miles and a half."
" Thunder and lightning ! so near ! Call all hands ! "
J. Ross Browne's Etchings of a
Whaling Cruise. 1846.
4 The Whale-ship Globe, on board of which vessel occurred
the horrid transactions we are about to relate, belonged to
the island of Nantucket.'
Narrative of the Globe Mutiny, by
Lay and Hussey, Survivors. A.D. 1828.
c Being once pursued by a whale which he had wounded,
he parried the assault for some time with a lance ; but the
furious monster at length rushed on the boat ; himself and
comrades only being preserved by leaping into the water
when they saw the onset was inevitable. 5
Missionary Journal of Tyerman and Bennett.
' Nantucket itself,' said Mr. Webster, ' is a very striking
and peculiar portion of the National interest. There is a
population of eight or nine thousand persons, living here
in the sea, adding largely every year to the National wealth
by the boldest and most persevering industry.'
Report of Daniel Webster's Speech in the U.S.
Senate, on the Application for the Erection
of a Breakwater at Nantucket. 1828.
xxii . MOBY-DICK
' The whale fell directly over him, and probably killed him
in a moment.'
The Whale and his Captors, or the Whale-
man's Adventures and the Whale's Bio-
graphy, gathered on the Homeward Cruise
of the Commodore Preble. By Rev. Henry
T. Cheever.
' " If you make the least damn bit of noise," replied Samuel,
" I will send you to hell." '
Life of Samuel Comstock (the Mutineer), by
his Brother, William Comstock. Another
Version of the Whale-ship Globe Narrative.
' The voyages of the Dutch and English to the Northern
Ocean, in order, if possible, to discover a passage through it
to India, though they failed of their main object, laid open
the haunts of the whale.'
McCulloch's Commercial Dictionary.
4 These things are reciprocal ; the ball rebounds, only to
bound forward again ; for now in laying open the haunts
of the whale, the whalemen seem to have indirectly hit upon
new clews to that same mystic North -West Passage.'
From ' Something ' unpublished.
4 It is impossible to meet a whale-ship on the ocean with-
out being struck by her near appearance. The vessel under
short sail, with look-outs at the mast-heads, eagerly scanning
the wide expanse around them, has a totally different air
from those engaged in a regular voyage.'
Currents and Whaling. U.S. Ex. Ex.
1 Pedestrians in the vicinity of London and elsewhere may
recollect having seen large curved bones set upright in the
earth, either to form arches over gateways, or entrances to
alcoves, and they may perhaps have been told that these
were the ribs of whales.'
Tales of a Whale Voyager to the Arctic Ocean.
' It was not till the boats returned from the pursuit of these
whales, that the whites saw their ship in bloody possession
of the savages enrolled among the crew.'
Newspaper Account of the Taking and Retaking
of the Whale-ship Hobomack.
EXTRACTS xxiii
' It is generally well known that out of the crews of Whaling
vessels (American) few ever return in the ships on board of
which they departed.' Cruise in a Whale Boat.
1 Suddenly a mighty mass emerged from the water, and
shot up perpendicularly into the air. It was the whale.'
Miriam Coffin or the Whale Fisherman.
' The Whale is harpooned to be sure ; but bethink you,
how you would manage a powerful unbroken colt, with the
mere appliance of a rope tied to the root of his tail.'
A Chapter on WJialing in Ribs and Trucks.
' On one occasion I saw two of these monsters (whales)
probably male and female, slowly swimming, one after the
other, within less than a stone's throw of the shore ' (Tierra
del Fuego), ' over which the beech tree extended its branches.'
Darwin's Voyage of a Naturalist.
' " Stern all ! " exclaimed the mate, as upon turning his
head, he saw the distended jaws of a large Sperm Whale
close to the head of the boat, threatening it with instant
destruction ; " Stern all, for your lives ! "
Wharton the Whale Killer.
' So be cheery, my lads, let your hearts never fail,
While the bold harpooneer is striking the whale ! '
Nantucket Song.
' Oh, the rare old Whale, mid storm and gale,
In his ocean home will be
A giant in might, where might is right,
And King of the boundless sea.'
Whale Song.
MOBY-DICK
CHAPTER I
LOOMINGS
CALL me Ishmael. Some years ago never mind how
long precisely having little or no money in my purse,
and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought
I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the
world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and
regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself
growing grim about the mouth ; whenever it is a damp,
drizzly November in my soul ; whenever I find myself
involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bring-
ing up the rear of every funeral I meet ; and especially
whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that
it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from
deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically
knocking people's hats off then, I account it high time
to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for
pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws
himself upon his sword ; I quietly take to the ship.
There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew
it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other,
cherish very nearly the same feelings toward the ocean
with me.
There now is your insular city of the Manhattoes,
belted round by wharves as Indian isles by coral reefs
commerce surrounds it with her surf. Right and left, the
streets take you waterward. Its extreme down -town is the
battery, where that noble mole is washed by waves, and
VOL. I. A
2 MOBY-DICK
cooled by breezes, which a few hours previous were out of
sight of land. Look at the crowds of water -gazers there.
Circumambulate the city of a dreamy Sabbath after-
noon. Go from Corlears Hook to Coenties Slip, and
from thence, by Whitehall, northward. What do you
see ? Posted like silent sentinels all around the town,
stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed
in ocean reveries. Some leaning against the spiles ;
some seated upon the pier-heads ; some looking over
Vhe bulwarks of ships from China ; some high aloft in
the rigging, as if striving to get a still better seaward
peep. But these are all landsmen ; of week days pent
up in lath and plaster tied to counters, nailed to benches,
clinched to desks. How then is this ? Are the green
fields gone ? What do they here ?
But look ! here come more crowds, pacing straight for
the water, and seemingly bound for a dive. Strange !
Nothing will content them but the extremest limit of the
land ; loitering under the shady lee of yonder warehouses
will not suffice. No. They must get just as nigh the
water as they possibly can without falling in. And there
they stand miles of them leagues. Inlanders all, they
come from lanes and alleys, streets and avenues north,
east, south, and west. Yet here they all unite. Tell me,
does the magnetic virtue of the needles of the compasses
of all those ships attract them thither ?
Once more. Say, you are in the country ; in some
high land of lakes. Take almost any path you please,
and ten to one it carries you down in a dale, and leaves
you there by a pool in the stream. There is magic in it.
Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his
deepest reveries stand that man on his legs, set his feet
a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water
there be in all that region. Should you ever be athirst
in the great American desert, try this experiment, if your
LOOMINGS 3
caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical
professor. Yes, as everyone knows, meditation andli
water are wedded forever.
But here is an artist. He desires to paint you the
dreamiest, shadiest, quietest, most enchanting bit of
romantic landscape in all the valley of the Saco. What
is the chief element he employs ? There stand his trees,
each with a hollow trunk, as if a hermit and a crucifix
were within ; and here sleeps his meadow, and there sleep
his cattle ; and up from yonder cottage goes a sleepy
smoke. Deep into distant woodlands winds a mazy way,
reaching to overlapping spurs of mountains bathed in
their hillside blue. But though the picture lies thus
tranced, and though this pine-tree shakes down its sighs
like leaves upon this shepherd's head, yet all were
vain, unless the shepherd's eye were fixed upon the
magic stream before him. Go visit the Prairies in June,
when for scores on scores of miles you wade knee -deep
among tiger-lilies what is the one charm wanting ?-
Water there is not a drop of water there ! Were Niagara
but a cataract of sand, would you travel your thousand
miles to see it ? Why did the poor poet of Tennessee,
upon suddenly receiving two handfuls of silver, deliberate
whether to buy him a coat, which he sadly needed, or
invest his money in a pedestrian trip to Rockaway Beach ?
Why is almost every robust healthy boy with a robust
healthy soul in him, at some time or other crazy to go to
sea ? Why upon your first voyage as a passenger, did
you yourself feel such a mystical vibration, when first ;
told that you and your ship were now out of sight of '
land ? Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy ?
Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own
brother of Jove ? Surely all this is not without meaning.
And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus,
who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild
4 MOBY-DICK
image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was
drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all
rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable
phantom of life ; and this is the key to it all.
Now, when I say that I am in the habit of going to sea
whenever I begin to grow hazy about the eyes, and begin
to be over conscious of my lungs, I do not mean to have
it inferred that I ever go to sea as a passenger. For to
go as a passenger you must needs have a purse, and a
purse is but a rag unless you have something in it. Be-
sides, passengers get sea-sick grow quarrelsome don't
sleep of nights do not enjoy themselves much, as a
general thing ; no, I never go as a passenger ; nor,
though I am something of a salt, do I ever go to sea as a
Commodore, or a Captain, or a Cook. I abandon the
glory and distinction of such offices to those who like
them. For my part, I abominate all honourable respect-
able toils, trials, and tribulations of every kind what-
soever. It is quite as much as I can do to take care
of myself, without taking care of ships, barques, brigs,
schooners, and what not. And as for going as cook,
though I confess there is considerable glory in that, a
cook being a sort of officer on shipboard yet, somehow,
I never fancied broiling fowls ; though once broiled,
judiciously buttered, and judgmatically salted and
peppered, there is no one who will speak more respect-
fully, not to say reverentially, of a broiled fowl than I
will. It is out of the idolatrous do tings of the old
Egyptians upon broiled ibis and roasted river horse, that
you see the mummies of those creatures in their huge
bake-houses the pyramids.
No, when I go to sea, I go as a simple sailor, right
before the mast, plumb down into the forecastle, aloft
there to the royal mast-head. True, they rather order
me about some, and make me jump from spar to spar,
LOOMINGS 5
like a grasshopper in a May meadow. And at first, this
sort of thing is unpleasant enough. It touches one's
sense of honour, particularly if you come of an old estab-
lished family in the land, the Van Rensselaers, or Ran-
dolphs, or Hardicanutes. And more than all, if just
previous to putting your hand into the tar-pot, you have
been lording it as a country schoolmaster, making the
tallest boys stand in awe of you. The transition is a
keen one, I assure you, from a schoolmaster to a sailor,
and requires a strong decoction of Seneca and the Stoics
to enable you to grin and bear it. But even this wears
off hi time.
What of it, if some old hunks of a sea-captain orders
me to get a broom and sweep down the decks ? What
does that indignity amount to, weighed, I mean, in the
scales of the New Testament ? Do you think the arch-
angel Gabriel thinks anything the less of me, because I
promptly and respectfully obey that old hunks in that
particular instance ? Who ain/t a slave ? Tell me that.
Well, then, however the~old^sea -captains may order me
about however they may thump and punch me about,
I have the satisfaction of knowing that it is all right ;
that everybody else is one way or other served in much the
same way either in a physical or metaphysical point of
view, that is ; and so the universal thump is passed
round, and all hands should rub each other's shoulder-
blades, and be content.
Again, I always go to sea as a sailor, because they make
a point of paying me for my trouble, whereas they never
pay passengers a single penny that I ever heard of. On
the contrary, passengers themselves must pay. And
there is all the difference in the world between paying
and being paid. The act of paying is perhaps the most
uncomfortable infliction that the two orchard thieves
entailed upon us. But being paid, what will compare
6 MOBY-DICK
with it ? The urbane activity with which a man receives
money is really marvellous, considering that we so
earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills,
and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven.
Ah ! how cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition !
Finally, I always go to sea as a sailor, because of the
wholesome exercise and pure air of the forecastle deck.
For as in this world, head-winds are far more prevalent
than winds from astern (that is, if you never violate
the Pythagorean maxim), so for the most part the com-
modore on the quarter-deck gets his atmosphere at
second hand from the sailors on the forecastle. He thinks
he breathes it first ; but not so. In much the same
way do the commonalty lead their leaders in many other
things, at the same time that the leaders little suspect it.
But wherefore it was that after having repeatedly smelt
the sea as a merchant sailor, I should now take it into
my head to go on a whaling voyage ; this the invisible
police-officer of the Fates, who has the constant surveil-
lance of me, and secretly dogs me, and influences me in
some unaccountable way he can better answer than any
one else. And, doubtless, my going on this whaling
voyage formed part of the grand programme of Provi-
dence that was drawn up a long time ago. It came in
as a sort of brief interlude and solo between more exten-
sive performances. I take it that this part of the bill
must have run something like this :
' Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the
United States.
' WHALING VOYAGE BY ONE ISHMAEL.
1 BLOODY BATTLE IN AFGHANISTAN.'
Though I cannot tell why it was exactly that those
stage managers, the Fates, put me down for this shabby
LOOMINGS 7
part of a whaling voyage, when others were set down
for magnificent parts in high tragedies, and short and easy
parts in genteel comedies, and jolly parts in farces
though I cannot tell why this was exactly ; yet, now that
I recall all the circumstances, I think I can see a little
into the springs and motives which, being cunningly
presented to me under various disguises, induced me to
set about performing the part I did, besides cajoling me
into the delusion that it was a choice resulting from my
own unbiased freewill and discriminating judgment.
Chief among these motives was the overwhelming idea
of the great whale himself. Such a gortentous and
mysterious monster roused all my curiosity. Then the
wild and distant seas where he rolled his island bulk ;
the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale ; these,
with all the attending marvels of a thousand Patagonian
sights and sounds, helped to sway me to my wish. With
other men, perhaps, such things would not have been
inducements ; but as for me, I am tormented with an
everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail for-
bidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts. Not ignoring
what is good, I am quick to perceive a horror, and could
still be social with it would they let me since it is
but well to be on friendly terms with all the inmates of
the place one lodges in.
By reason of these things, then, the whaling voyage
was welcome ; the great flood-gates of the wonder-world
swung open, and in the wild conceits that swayed me to
my purpose, two and two there floated into my inmost
soul, endless processions of the whale, and, midmost of
them all, one grand hooded phantom, like a snow hill in
the air.
CHAPTER II
THE CARPET-BAG
I stuffed a shirt or two into my old carpet-bag, tucked
it under my arm, and started for Cape Horn and the
Pacific. Quitting the good city of old Manhatto, I duly
arrived in New Bedford. It was on a Saturday night in
December. Much was I disappointed upon learning
that the little packet for Nantucket had already sailed,
and that no way of reaching that place would offer, till
the following Monday.
As most young candidates for the pains and penalties
of whaling stop at this same New Bedford, thence to
embark on their voyage, it may as well be related that I 5
for one, had no idea of so doing. For my mind was made
up to sail in no other than a Nantucket craft, because
there was a fine, boisterous something about everything
connected with that famous old island, which amazingly
pleased me. Besides, though New Bedford has of late
been gradually monopolising the business of whaling, and
though in this matter poor old Nantucket is now much
behind her, yet Nantucket was her great original the
Tyre of this Carthage ; the place where the first dead
American whale was stranded. Where else but from
Nantucket did those aboriginal whalemen, the Red Men,
first sally out in canoes to give chase to the leviathan ?
And where but from Nantucket, too, did that first adven-
turous little sloop put forth, partly laden with imported
cobble-stones so goes the story to throw at the whales,
THE CARPET-BAG 9
in order to discover when they were nigh enough to risk
a harpoon from the bowsprit ?
Now having a night, a day, and still another night
following before me in New Bedford, ere I could embark
for my destined port, it became a matter of concernment
where I was to eat and sleep meanwhile. It was a very
dubious-looking, nay, a very dark and dismal night,
bitingly cold and cheerless. I knew no one in the place.
With anxious grapnelsJE had sounded my pocket, and only
brought up a few pieces of silver. So, wherever you go,
Ishmael, said I to myself, as I stood in the middle of a
dreary street shouldering my bag, and comparing the
gloom toward the north with the darkness toward the
south wherever in your wisdom you may conclude to
lodge for the night, my dear Ishmael, be sure to inquire
the price, and don't be too particular.
With halting steps I paced the streets, and passed the
sign of 'The Crossed Harpoons ' but it looked too expen-
sive and jolly there. Further on, from the bright red
windows of the ' Sword-Fish Inn,' there came such fer-
vent rays, that it seemed to have melted the packed snow
and ice from before the house, for everywhere else the
congealed frost lay ten inches thick in a hard, asphaltic
pavement, rather weary for me, when I struck my foot
against the flinty projections, because from hard, remorse-
less service the soles of mv boots were in a most miserable
V
plight. Too expensive and jolly, again thought I, pausing
one moment to watch the broad glare in the street, and
hear the sounds of the tinkling glasses within. But go i
on, Ishmael, said I at last ; don't you hear ? get away l
from before the door ; your patched boots are stopping
the way. So on I went. I now by instinct followed the
streets that took me waterward, for there, doubtless,
were the cheapest, if not the cheeriest inns.
Such dreary streets ! blocks of blackness, not houses,
10 MOBY-DICK
on either hand, and here and there a candle, like a candle
moving about in a tomb. At this hour of the night, of
the last day of the week, that quarter of the town proved
all but deserted. But presently I carne to a smoky
light proceeding from a low, wide building, the door of
which stood invitingly open. It had a careless look, as
if it were meant for the uses of the public ; so, entering,
the first thing I did was to stumble over an ash-box in
the porch. Ha ! thought I, ha, as the flying particles
almost choked me, are these ashes from that destroyed
city, Gomorrah ? But ' The Cfossed Harpoons ' and
4 The Sword-Fish ' ? this, then, must needs be the sign
of ' The Trap. ' However, I picked myself up , and hearing
a loud voice within, pushed on and opened a second,
interior door.
It seemed the great Black Parliament sitting in Tophet.
A hundred black faces turned round in their rows to peer ;
and beyond, a black Angel of Doom was beating a book
in a pulpit. It was a negro church ; and the preacher's
text was about the blackness of darkness, and the weep-
ing and wailing and teeth -gnashing there. Ha, Ishmael,
muttered I, backing out, Wretched entertainment at the
sign of ' The Trap ' !
Moving on, I at last came to a dim sort of light not far
from the docks, and heard a forlorn creaking in the air ;
and looking up, saw a swinging sign over the door with
a white painting upon it, faintly representing a tall straight
jet of misty spray, and these words underneath ' The
Spouter-Inn : Peter Coffin.'
Coffin ? Spouter ? Rather ominous in that particu-
lar connection, thought I. But it is a common name in
Nantucket, they say, and I suppose this Peter here is an
emigrant from there. As the light looked so dim, and
the place, for the time, looked quiet enough, and the
dilapidated little wooden house itself looked as if it might
THE CARPET-BAG 11
have been carted here from the ruins of some burnt dis-
trict, and as the swinging sign had a poverty-stricken sort
of creak to it, I thought that here was the very spot for
cheap lodgings, and the best of pea-coffee.
It was a queer sort of place a gable-ended old house,
one side palsied as it were, and leaning over sadly. It
stood on a sharp bleak corner, where that tempestuous
wind Euroclydon kept up a worse howling than ever it
did about poor Paul's tossed craft. Euroclydon, never-
theless, is a mighty pleasant zephyr to anyone indoors,
with his feet on the hob quietly toasting for bed. 4 In
judging of that tempestuous wind called Euroclydon,'
says an old writer of whose works I possess the only
copy extant ' it maketh a marvellous difference,
whether thou lookest out at it from a glass window where
the frost is all on the outside, or whether thou observest
it from that Cashless window, where the frost is on both
sides, and of which the wight Death is the only glazier.'
True enough, thought I, as this passage occurred to my
mind old black-letter, thou reasonest well. Yes, these
eyes are windows, and this body of mine is the house.
What a pity they didn't stop up the chinks and the
crannies though, and thrust in a little lint here and there.
But it 's too late to make any improvements now. The
universe is finished ; the cope-stone is on, and the chips
were carted off a million years ago. Poor Lazarus there,
chattering his teeth against the curbstone for his pillow,
and shaking off his tatters with his shiverings, he might
plug up both ears with rags, and put a corn-cob into his
mouth, and yet that would not keep out the tempestuous
Euroclydon. Euroclydon ! says old Dives, in his red
silken wrapper (he had a redder one afterward) pooh,
pooh ! What a fine frosty night ; how Orion glitters ;
what northern lights ! Let them talk of their oriental
summer climes of everlasting conservatories ; give me
12 MOBY-DICK
the privilege of making my own summer with my own
coals.
But what thinks Lazarus ? Can he warm his blue
hands by holding them up to the grand northern lights ?
Would not Lazarus rather be in Sumatra than here ?
Would he not far rather lay him down lengthwise along
the line of the equator ; yea, ye gods ! go down to the
fiery pit itself, in order to keep out this frost ?
Now, that Lazarus should lie stranded there on the
curbstone before the door of Dives, this is more wonderful
than that an iceberg should be moored to one of the
Moluccas. Yet Dives himself, he too lives like a Czar
in an ice-palace made of frozen sighs, and being a president
of a temperance society, he only drinks the tepid tears of
orphans.
But no more of this blubbering now, we are going a-
whaling, and there is plenty of that yet to come. Let
us scrape the ice from our frosted feet, and see what sort
of a place this ' Spouter ' may be.
CHAPTER III
THE SPOTTTER-INN
ENTERING that gable -ended Spouter-Inn, you found
yourself in a wide, low, straggling entry with old-fashioned
wainscots, reminding one of the bulwarks of some con-
demned old craft. On one side hung a very large oil-
painting so thoroughly besmoked, and every way defaced,
that in the unequal cross-lights by which you viewed it,
it was only by diligent study and a series of systematic
visits to it, and careful inquiry of the neighbours, that
you could any way arrive at an understanding of its
purpose. Such unaccountable masses of shades and
shadows, that at first you almost thought some ambitious
young artist, in the time of the New England hags, had
endeavoured to delineate chaos bewitched. But by dint
of much and earnest contemplation, and oft-repeated
ponderings, and especially by throwing open the little
window toward the back of the entry, you at last come
to the conclusion that such an idea, however wild, might
not be altogether unwarranted.
But what most puzzled and confounded you was a
long, limber, portentous, black mass of something hover-
ing in the centre of the picture over three blue, dim,
perpendicular lines floating in a nameless yeast. A boggy,
soggy, squitchy picture truly, enough to drive a nervous
man distracted. Yet there was a sort of indefinite, half-
attained, unimaginable sublimity about it that fairly
froze you to it, till you in voluntarily, took an oath with
yourself to find out what that marvellous painting meant.
is
14 MOBY-DICK
Ever and anon a bright, but, alas, deceptive idea would
dart you through. It 's the Black Sea in a midnight gale.
It 's the unnatural combat of the four primal elements.
It 's a blasted heath. It 's a Hyperborean winter scene.
It 's the breaking-up of the ice-bound stream of Time.
But at last all these fancies yielded to that one portentous
something in the picture's midst. That once found out,
and all the rest were plain. But stop ; does it not bear
a faint resemblance to a gigantic fish ? even the great
leviathan himself ?
In fact, the artist's design seemed this : a final theory
of my own, partly based upon the aggregated opinions
of many aged persons with whom I conversed upon the
subject. The picture represents a Cape-Horner in a great
hurricane ; the half-foundered ship weltering there with
its three dismantled masts alone visible ; and an exasper-
ated whale, purposing to spring clean over the craft, is
in the enormous act of impaling himself upon the three
mast-heads.
The opposite wall of this entry was hung all over with
a heathenish array of monstrous clubs and spears. Some
were thickly set with glittering teeth resembling ivory
saws ; others were tufted with knots of human hair ; and
one was sickle-shaped, with a vast handle sweeping round
like the segment made in the new-mown grass by a long-
armed mower. You shuddered as you gazed, and
wondered what monstrous cannibal and savage could
ever have gone a death-harvesting with such a hacking,
horrifying implement. Mixed with these were rusty
old whaling-lances and harpoons all broken and deformed.
Some were storied weapons. With this once long lance,
now wildly elbowed, fifty years ago did Nathan Swain
kill fifteen whales between a sunrise and a sunset. And
that harpoon so like a corkscrew now was flung in
Javan seas, and run away with by a whale, years after-
THE SPOUTER-INN 15
ward slain off the Cape of Blanco. The original iron
entered nigh the tail, and, like a restless needle sojourning
in the body of a man, travelled full forty feet, and at last
was found imbedded in the hump.
Crossing this dusky entry, and on through yon low-
arched way cut through what in old times must have
been a great central chimney with fire-places all round
you enter the public room. A still duskier place is this,
with such low ponderous beams above, and such old
wrinkled planks beneath, that you would almost fancy
you trod some old craft's cockpits, especially of such a
howling night, when this corner-anchored old ark rocked
so furiously. On one side stood a long, low, shelf-like
table covered with cracked glass cases, filled with dusty
rarities gathered from this wide world's remotest nooks.
Projecting from the further angle of the room stands a
dark-looking den the bar a rude attempt at a right
whale's head. Be that how it may, there stands the vast
arched bone of the whale's jaw, so wide, a coach might
almost drive beneath it. Within are shabby shelves,
ranged round with old decanters, bottles, flasks ; and in
those jaws of swift destruction, like another cursed Jonah
(by which name indeed they called him), bustles a little
withered old man, who, for their money, dearly sells the
sailors deliriums and death.
Abominable are the tumblers into which he pours his
poison. Though true cylinders without within, the
villainous green goggling glasses deceitfully tapered down-
ward to a cheating bottom. Parallel meridians rudely
pecked into the glass, surround these footpads' goblets.
Fill to this mark, and your charge is but a penny ; to this
a penny more ; and so on to the full glass the Cape
Horn measure, which you may gulp down for a shilling.
Upon entering the place I found a number of young
seamen gathered about a table, examining by a dim light
16 MOBY-DICK
divers speiimens of skrimshander. I sought the land-
lord, and telling him I desired to be accommodated with
a room, received for answer that his house was full not
a bed unoccupied. ' But avast, 5 he added, tapping his
forehead, ' you hain't no objections to sharin* a har-
pooneer 's blanket, have ye ? I s'pose you are goin' a-
whalin 5 , so you 'd better get used to that sort of thing. 5
I told him that I never liked to sleep two in a bed ; that
if I should ever do so, it would depend upon who the
harpooneer might be, and that if he (the landlord) really
had no other place for me, and the harpooneer was not
decidedly objectionable, why, rather than wander further
about a strange town on so bitter a night, I would put
up with the half of any decent man 5 s blanket.
' I thought so. All right ; take a seat. Supper ?
you want supper ? Supper 5 11 be ready directly. 5
I sat down on an old wooden settle, carved all over like
a bench on the Battery. At one end a ruminating tar
was still further adorning it with his jack-knife, stooping
over and diligently working away at the space between
his legs. He was trying his hand at a ship under full sail,
but he didn't make much headway, I thought.
At last some four or five of us were summoned to our
meal in an adjoining room. It was cold as Iceland
no fire at all the landlord said he couldn't afford it.
Nothing but two dismal tallow candles, each in a winding
sheet. We were fain to button up our monkey-jackets,
and hold to our lips cups of scalding tea with our half-
frozen fingers. But the fare was of the most substantial
kind not only meat and potatoes, but dumplings ; good
heavens ! dumplings for supper ! One young fellow in
a green box-coat addressed himself to these dumplings
hi a most direful manner.
' My boy,' said the landlord, ' you '11 have the night-
mare to a dead sartainty.'
THE SPOUTER-INN 17
'Landlord,' I whispered, w that ain't the harpooneer,
is it ? '
1 Oh, no/ said he, looking a sort of diabolically funny,
4 the harpooneer is a dark - complexioned chap. He
never eats dumplings, he don't he eats nothing but
steaks, and likes 'em rare.'
' The devil he does, ' says I. ' Where is that harpooneer ?
Is he here ? '
' He '11 be here afore long,' was the answer.
I could not help it, but I began to feel suspicious of
this ' dark-complexioned ' harpooneer. At any rate, I
made up my mind that if it so turned out that we should
sleep together, he must undress and get into bed before
I did.
Supper over, the company went back to the bar-room,
when, knowing not what else to do with myself, I resolved
to spend the rest of the evening as a looker-on.
Presently a rioting noise was heard without. Starting
up, the landlord cried, ' That 's the Grampus's crew. I
seed her reported in the offing this morning ; a three
years' voyage, and a full ship. Hurrah, boys ; now we '11
have the latest news from the Feegees.'
A tramping of sea-boots was heard in the entry ; the
door was flung open, and in rolled a wild set of mariners
enough. Enveloped in their shaggy watch-coats, and
with their heads muffled in woollen comforters, all be-
darned and ragged, and their beards stiff with icicles,
they seemed an eruption of bears from Labrador. They
had just landed from their boat, and this was the first
house they entered. No wonder, then, that they made
a straight wake for the whale's mouth the bar when
the wrinkled little old Jonah, there officiating, soon
poured them out brimmers all round. One complained
of a bad cold in his head, upon which Jonah mixed
him a pitch-like potion of gin and molasses, which he
VOL. I. B
18 MOBY-DICK
swore was a sovereign cure for all colds and catarrhs
whatsoever, never mind of how long standing, or whether
caught off the coast of Labrador, or on the weather-side
of an ice -island.
The liquor soon mounted into their heads, as it
generally does even with the arrantest topers newly
landed from sea, and they began capering about most
obstreperously.
I observed, however, that one of them held somewhat
aloof, and though he seemed desirous not to spoil the
hilarity of his shipmates by his own sober face, yet upon
the whole he refrained from making as much noise as the
rest. This man interested me at once ; and since the sea-
gods had ordained that he should soon become my ship-
mate (though but a sleeping-partner one, so far as this
narrative is concerned), I will here venture upon a little
description of him. He stood full six feet in height, with
noble shoulders, and a chest like a coffer-dam. I have
seldom seen such brawn in a man. His face was deeply
brown and burnt, making his white teeth dazzling by the
contrast ; while in the deep shadows of his eyes floated
some reminiscences that did not seem to give him much
joy. His voice at once announced that he was a
Southerner, and from his fine stature, I thought he must
be one of those tall mountaineers from the Alleghanian
Ridge in Virginia. When the revelry of his companions
had mounted to its height, this man slipped away unob-
served, and I saw no more of him till he became my
comrade on the sea. In a few minutes, however, he was
missed by his shipmates, and being, it seems, for some
reason a huge favourite with them, they raised a cry of
' Bulkington ! Bulkington ! where 5 s Bulkington ? ' and
darted out of the house in pursuit of him.
It was now about nine o'clock, and the room seeming
almost supernaturally quiet after these orgies, I began
THE SPOUTER-INN 19
to congratulate myself upon a little plan that had occurred
to me just previous to the entrance of the seamen.
No man prefers to sleep two in a bed. In fact, you
would a good deal rather not sleep with your own brother.
I don't know how it is, but people like to be private when
they are sleeping. And when it comes to sleeping with
an unknown stranger, in a strange inn, in a strange town,
and that stranger a harpooneer, then your objections
indefinitely multiply. Nor was there any earthly reason
why I as a sailor should sleep two in a bed, more than
anybody else ; for sailors no more sleep two in a bed at
sea, than bachelor kings do ashore. To be sure, they
all sleep together in one apartment, but you have your
own hammock, and cover yourself with your own blanket,
and sleep in your own skin.
The more I pondered over this harpooneer, the more I
abominated the thought of sleeping with him. It was
fair to presume that being a harpooneer, his linen or
woollen, as the case might be, would not be of the tidiest,
certainly none of the finest. I began to twitch all over.
Besides, it was getting late, and my decent harpooneer
ought to be home and going bedward. Suppose now,
he should tumble in upon me at midnight how could I
tell from what vile hole he had been coming ?
' Landlord ! I Ve changed my mind about that
harpooneer. I shan't sleep with him. I '11 try the bench
here.'
' Just as you please ; I 'm sorry I can't spare ye a
tablecloth for a mattress, and it 's a plaguy rough board
here ' feeling of the knots and notches. ' But wait
a bit, Skrimshander ; I Ve got a carpenter's plane there
in the bar wait, I say, and I '11 make ye snug enough.'
So saying he procured the plane ; and with his old silk
handkerchief first dusting the bench, vigorously set to
planing away at my bed, the while grinning like an ape.
20 MOBY-DICK
The shavings flew right and left ; till at last the plane-
iron came bump against an indestructible knot. The
landlord was near spraining his wrist, and I told him for
heaven's sake to quit the bed was soft enough to suit
me, and I did not know how all the planing in the world
could make eider down of a pine plank. So gathering
up the shavings with another grin, and throwing them
into the great stove in the middle of the room, he went
about his business, and left me in a brown study.
I now took the measure of the bench, and found that
it was a foot too short ; but that could be mended with
a chair. But it was a foot too narrow, and the other
bench in the room was about four inches higher than the
planed one so there was no yoking them. I then placed
the first bench lengthwise along the only clear space
against the wall, leaving a little interval between, for my
back to settle down in. But I soon found that there
came such a draught of cold air over me from under the
sill of the window, that this plan would never do at all,
especially as another current from the rickety door met
the one from the window, and both together formed a
series of small whirlwinds in the immediate vicinity of the
spot where I had thought to spend the night.
The devil fetch that harpooneer, thought I, but stop,
couldn't I steal a march on him bolt his door inside, and
jump into his bed, not to be wakened by the most violent
knockings ? It seemed no bad idea ; but upon second
thoughts I dismissed it. For who could tell but what
the next morning, so soon as I popped out of the room,
the harpooneer might be standing in the entry, all ready
to knock me down !
Still, looking round me again, and seeing no possible
chance of spending a sufferable night unless in some other
person's bed, I began to think that after all I might be
cherishing unwarrantable prejudices against this unknown
THE SPOQTER-INN 21
harpooneer. Thinks I, I '11 wait awhile ; he must be
dropping in before long. 1 11 have a good look at him
then, and perhaps we may become jolly good bedfellows
after all there 's no telling.
But though the other boarders kept coming in by
ones, twos, and threes, and going to bed, yet no sign of
my harpooneer.
4 Landlord ! ' said I, ' what sort of a chap is he does
he always keep such late hours ? ' It was now hard
upon twelve o'clock.
The landlord chuckled again with his lean chuckle,
and seemed to be mightily tickled at something beyond
my comprehension. ' No,' he answered, ' generally he 5 s
an early bird airley to bed and airley to rise yes, he 's
the bird what catches the worm. But to-night he
went out a-peddling, you see, and I don't see what
on airth keeps him so late, unless, maybe, he can't sell
his head.'
' Can't sell his head ? What sort of a bamboozingly
story is this you are telling me ? ' getting into a tower-
ing rage. ' Do you pretend to say, landlord, that this
harpooneer is actually engaged this blessed Saturday
night, or rather Sunday morning, in peddling his head
around this town ? '
' That 's precisely it,' said the landlord, ' and I told
him he couldn't sell it here, the market 's overstocked.'
' With what ? ' shouted I.
' With heads, to be sure ; ain't there too many heads
in the world ? '
' I tell you what it is, landlord,' said I, quite calmly,
' you 'd better stop spinning that yarn to me I 'm not
green.'
6 Maybe not, ' taking out a stick and whittling a tooth-
pick, ' but I rayther guess you '11 be done brown if that
'ere harpooneer hears you a-slanderin' his head.'
22 MOBY-DICK
' I '11 break it for him/ said I, now flying into a passion
again at this unaccountable farrago of the landlord's.
' It 's broke a 'ready,' said he.
' Broke/ said I ' broke, do you mean ? '
' Sartain, and that 's the very reason he can't sell it,
I guess.'
' Landlord/ said I, going up to him as cool as Mt.
Hecla in a snow-storm, 'landlord, stop whittling. You
and I must understand one another, and that too without
delay. I come to your house and want a bed ; you tell
me you can only give me half a one ; that the other half
belongs to a certain harpooneer. And about this har-
pooneer, whom I have not yet seen, you persist in telling
me the most mystifying and exasperating stories, tending
to beget in me an uncomfortable feeling toward the man
whom you design for my bedfellow* a sort of connection,
landlord, which is an intimate and confidential one in the
highest degree. I now demand of you to speak out and
tell me who and what this harpooneer is, and whether I
shall be in all respects safe to spend the night with him.
And in the first place, you will be so good as to unsay that
story about selling his head, which if true I take to be
good evidence that this harpooneer is stark mad, and I 've
no idea of sleeping with a madman ; and you, sir, you
I mean, landlord, you, sir, by trying to induce me to do
so knowingly, would thereby render yourself liable to a
criminal prosecution.'
' Wall/ said the landlord, fetching a long breath, 'that 's
a purty long sarmon for a chap that rips a little now and
then. But be easy, be easy, this here harpooneer I have
been tellin' you of has just arrived from the South Seas,
where he bought up a lot of 'balmed New Zealand heads
(great curios, you know), and he 's sold all on 'em but
one, and that one he 's tryin' to sell to-night, cause to-
morrow 's Sunday, and it would not do to be sellin'
THE SPOUTER-INN 23
human heads about the streets when folks is goin' to
churches. He wanted to, last Sunday, but I stopped him
just as he was goin' out of the door with four heads strung
on a string, for all the airth like a string of inions.'
This account cleared up the otherwise unaccountable
mystery, and showed that the landlord, after all, had had
no idea of fooling me but at the same time what could
I think of a harpooneer who stayed out of a Saturday
night clean into the holy Sabbath, engaged in such a
cannibal business as selling the heads of dead idolaters ?
' Depend upon it, landlord, that harpooneer is a danger-
ous man.'
' He pays reg'lar, 5 was the rejoinder. ' But come,
it 's getting dreadful late, you had better be turning
flukes it 's a nice bed : Sail and me slept in that 'ere
bed the night we were spliced. There 's plenty room for
two to kick about in that bed ; it 's an almighty big bed
that. Why, afore we give it up, Sal used to put our Sam
and little Johnny in the foot of it. But I got a-dreaming
and sprawling about one night, and somehow, Sam got
pitched on the floor, and came near breaking his arm.
Arter that, Sal said it wouldn't do. Come along here,
I '11 give ye a glim in a jiffy ' ; and so saying he lighted a
candle and held it toward me, offering to lead the way.
But I stood irresolute ; when looking at a clock in the
corner, he exclaimed, ' I vum it 's Sunday you won't
see that harpooneer to-night ; he 's come to anchor some-
where come along then ; do come ; won't ye come ? '
I considered the matter a moment, and then upstairs
we went, and I was ushered into a small room, cold as a
clam, and furnished, sure enough, with a prodigious bed,
almost big enough indeed for any four harpooneers to
sleep abreast.
' There,' said the landlord, placing the candle on a
crazy old sea-chest that did double duty as a wash-stand
24 MOBY-DICK
and centre table ; ' there, make yourself comfortable
now, and good night to ye.' I turned round from eyeing
the bed, but he had disappeared.
Folding back the counterpane, I stooped over the bed.
Though none of the most elegant, it yet stood the scrutiny
tolerably well. I then glanced round the room ; and
besides the bedstead and centre table, could see no other
furniture belonging to the place, but a rude shelf, the four
walls, and a papered fire-board representing a man striking
a whale. Of things not properly belonging to the room,
there was a hammock lashed up, and thrown upon the
floor in one corner ; also a large seaman's bag, containing
the harpooneer's wardrobe, no doubt in lieu of a land trunk.
Likewise, there was a parcel of outlandish bone fish-hooks
on the shelf over the fire-place, and a tall harpoon stand-
ing at the head of the bed.
But what is this on the chest ? I took it up, and held
it close to the light, and felt it, and smelt it, and tried
every way possible to arrive at some satisfactory con-
clusion concerning it. I can compare it to nothing but
a large door-mat, ornamented at the edges with little
tinkling tags something like the stained porcupine quills
round an Indian moccasin. There was a hole or slit in
the middle of this mat, as you see the same in South
American ponchos. But could it be possible that any
sober harpooneer would get into a door-mat, and parade
the streets of any Christian town in that sort of guise ?
I put it on, to try it, and it weighed me down like a hamper,
being uncommonly shaggy and thick, and I thought a
little damp, as though this mysterious harpooneer had
been wearing it of a rainy day. I went up in it to a bit
of glass stuck against the wall, and I never saw such a
sight in my life. I tore myself out of it in such a hurry
that I gave myself a kink in the neck.
I sat down on the side of the bed, and commenced
THE SPOUTER-INN 25
thinking about this head-peddling harpooneer, and his
door-mat. After thinking some time on the bedside, I
got up and took off my monkey-jacket, and then stood
in the middle of the room thinking. I then took off my
coat, and thought a little more in my shirt -sleeves. But
beginning to feel very cold now, half undressed as I was,
and remembering what the landlord said about the har-
pooneer 's not coming home at all that night, it being so
very late, I made no more ado, but jumped out of my
pantaloons and boots, and then blowing out the light
tumbled into bed, and commended myself to the care of
heaven.
Whether that mattress was stuffed with corn-cobs or
broken crockery, there is no telling, but I rolled about a
good deal, and could not sleep for a long time. At last
I slid off into a light doze, and had pretty nearly made a
good offing toward the land of Nod, when I heard a
heavy footfall in the passage, and saw a glimmer of light
come into the room from under the door.
Lord save me, thinks I, that must be the harpooneer,
the infemal head-peddler. But I lay perfectly still, and
resolved not to say a word till spoken to. Holding a
light in one hand, and that identical New Zealand head
in the other, the stranger entered the room, and without
looking toward the bed, placed his candle a good way
off from me on the floor in one corner, and then began
working away at the knotted cords of the large bag I
before spoke of as being in the room. I was all eagerness
to see his face, but he kept it averted for some time while
employed in unlacing the bag 's mouth . This accomplished,
however, he turned round when, good heavens ! what a
sight ! Such a face ! It was of a dark, purplish, yellow
colour, here and there stuck over with large, blackish-
looking squares. Yes, it 's just as I thought, he 's a
terrible bedfellow ; he 's been in a fight, got dreadfully
26 MOBY-DICK
cut, and here he is, just from the surgeon. But at that
moment he chanced to turn his face so toward the light,
that I plainly saw they could not be sticking-plasters at
all, those black squares on his cheeks. They were stains
of some sort or other. At first I knew not what to make
of this ; but soon an inkling of the truth occurred to me.
I remembered a story of a white man a whaleman too
who, falling among the cannibals, had been tattooed by
them. I concluded that this harpooneer, in the course of
his distant voyages, must have met with a similar adven-
ture. And what is it, thought I, after all ! It 's only
his outside ; a man can be honest in any sort of skin.
But then, what to make of his unearthly complexion,
that part of it, I mean, lying round about, and completely
independent of the squares of tattooing. To be sure, it
might be nothing but a good coat of tropical tanning ;
but I never heard of a hot sun's tanning a white man into
a purplish-yellow one. However, I had never been in
the South Seas ; and perhaps the sun there produced
these extraordinary effects upon the skin. Now, while
all these ideas were passing through me like lightning,
this harpooneer never noticed me at all. But, after some
difficulty having opened his bag, he commenced fumbling
in it, and presently pulled out a sort of tomahawk, and
a sealskin wallet with the hair on. Placing these on the
old chest in the middle of the room, he then took the New
Zealand head a ghastly thing enough and crammed it
down into the bag. He now took off his hat a new
beaver hat when I came nigh singing out with fresh
surprise. There was no hair on his head none to speak
of, at least nothing but a small scalp -knot twisted up on
his forehead. His bald purplish head now looked for
all the world like a mildewed skull. Had not the^stranger
stood between me and the door, I would have bolted out
of it quicker than ever I bolted a dinner.
THE SPOUTER-INN 27
Even as it was, I thought something of slipping out
of the window, but it was the second floor back. I am
no coward, but what to make of this head-peddling purple
rascal altogether passed my comprehension. Ignorance,
js^the parent^QJJear, and being completely nonplussed
and confounded about the stranger, I confess I was now
as much afraid of him as if it was the devil himself who
had thus broken into my room at the dead of night. In
fact, I was so afraid of him that I was not game enough
just then to address him, and demand a satisfactory
answer concerning what seemed inexplicable in him.
Meanwhile, he continued the business of undressing,
and at last showed his chest and arms. As I live, these
covered parts of him were checkered with the same
squares as his face ; his back, too, was all over the same
dark squares ; he seemed to have been in a Thirty Years'
War, and just escaped from it with a sticking-plaster shirt.
Still more, his very legs were marked, as if a parcel of
dark green frogs were running up the trunks of young
palms. It was now quite plain that he must be some
abominable savage or other shipped aboard of a whale-
man in the South Seas, and so landed in this Christian
country. I quaked to think of it. A peddler of heads too
perhaps the heads of his own brothers. He might take
a fancy to mine heavens ! look at that tomahawk !
But there was no time for shuddering, for now the
savage went about something that completely fascinated
my attention, and convinced me that he must indeed be
a heathen. Going to his heavy grego, or wrapall, or
dreadnaught, which he had previously hung on a chair,
he fumbled in the pockets, and produced at length a
curious little deformed image with a hunch on its back,
and exactly the colour of a three-days-old Congo baby.
Remembering the embalmed head, at first I almost
thought that this black manikin was a real baby pre-
28 MOBY-DICK
served in some similar manner. But seeing that it was
not at all limber, and that it glistened a good deal like
polished ebony, I concluded that it must be nothing but
a wooden idol, which indeed it proved to be. For now
the savage goes up to the empty fire-place, and removing
the papered fire -board, sets up this little hunchbacked
image, like a ten-pin, between the andirons. The chimney
jambs and all the bricks inside were very sooty, so that
I thought this fire-place made a very appropriate little
shrine or chapel for his Congo idol.
I now screwed my eyes hard toward the half-hidden
image, feeling but ill at ease meantime to see what was
next to follow. First he takes about a double handful
of shavings out of his grego pocket, and places them
carefully before the idol ; then laying a bit of ship -biscuit
on top and applying the flame from the lamp, he kindled
<the shavings into a sacrificial blaze. Presently, after
many hasty snatches into the fire, and still hastier with-
drawals of his fingers (whereby he seemed to be scorching
them badly), he at last succeeded in drawing out the
biscuit ; then blowing off the heat and ashes a little,
he made a polite offer of it to the little negro. But the
little devil did not seem to fancy such dry sort of fare at
all ; he never moved his lips. All these strange antics
were accompanied by still stranger guttural noises from
the devotee, who seemed to be praying in a sing-song
or else singing some pagan psalmody or other, during
which his face twitched about in the most unnatural
manner. At last, extinguishing the fire, he took the idol
up very unceremoniously, and bagged it again in his
grego pocket as carelessly as if he were a sportsman
bagging a dead woodcock.
All these queer proceedings increased my uncomf ortable-
ness, and seeing him now exhibiting strong symptoms of
concluding his business operations, and jumping into bed
THE SPOUTER-INN 29
with me, I thought it was high time, now or never, before
the light was put out, to break the spell in which I had
so long been bound.
But the interval I spent in deliberating what to say
was a fatal one. Taking up his tomahawk from the table,
he examined the head of it for an instant, and then hold-
ing it to the light, with his mouth at the handle, he puffed
out great clouds of tobacco smoke. The next moment
the light was extinguished, and this wild cannibal, toma-
hawk between his teeth, sprang into bed with me. I
sang out, I could not help it now ; and giving a sudden
grunt of astonishment he began feeling me.
Stammering out something, I knew not what, I rolled
away from him against the wall, and then conjured him,
whoever or whatever he might be, to keep quiet, and let
me get up and light the lamp again. But his guttural
responses satisfied me at once that he but ill compre-
hended my meaning.
' Who-e debel you ? ' he at last said ' you no speak-e,
dam-me, I kill-e.' And so saying the lighted tomahawk
began flourishing about me in the dark.
4 Landlord, for God's sake, Peter Coffin ! ' shouted I.
' Landlord ! Watch ! Coffin ! Angels ! save me ! '
1 Speak-e ! tell-ee me who-ee be, or dam-me, I kill-e ! '
again growled the cannibal, while his horrid flourishings
of the tomahawk scattered the hot tobacco ashes about
me till I thought my linen would get on fire. But thank
heaven, at that moment the landlord came into the room
light in hand, and leaping from the bed I ran up to him.
4 Don't be afraid now,' said he, grinning again. ' Quee-
queg here wouldn't harm a hair of your head.'
' Stop your grinning,' shouted I, ' and why didn't you
tell me that that infernal harpooneer was a cannibal ? '
' I thought ye know'd it ; didn't I tell ye, he was
a-peddlin' heads around town ? but turn flukes again
30 MOBY-DICK
and go to sleep. Queequeg, look here you sabbee me,
I sabbee you this man sleepe you you sabbee ? '
' Me sabbee plenty,' grunted Queequeg, puffing away
at his pipe and sitting up in bed.
' You gettee in/ he added, motioning to me with his
tomahawk, and throwing the clothes to one side. He
really did this in not only a civil but a really kind and
charitable way. I stood looking at him a moment. For
all his tattooings he was on the whole a clean, comely-
looking cannibal. What 's all this fuss I have been
making about, thought I to myself the man ? s a human
being just as I am : he has just as much reason to fear
me, as I have to be afraid of him. Better sleep with a
sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.
'Landlord,' said I, 'tell him to stash his tomahawk
there, or pipe, or whatever you call it ; tell him to stop
smoking, in short, and I will turn in with him. But I
don't fancy having a man smoking in bed with me. It 's
dangerous. Besides, I ain't insured.'
This being told to Queequeg, he at once complied, and
again politely motioned me to get into bed rolling over
to one side as much as to say, I won't touch a leg of ye.
' Good night, landlord,' said I, ' you may go.'
I turned in, and never slept better in my life.
CHAPTER IV
THE COUNTERPANE
UPON waking next morning about daylight, I found
Queequeg's arm thrown over me in the most loving and
affectionate manner. You had almost thought I had
been his wife. The counterpane was of patchwork, full
of odd little parti-coloured squares and triangles ; and
this arm of his tattooed all over with an interminable
Cretan labyrinth of a figure, no two parts of which were
of one precise shade owing, I suppose, to his keeping
his arm at sea unmethodically in sun and shade, his
shirt-sleeves irregularly rolled up at various times
this same arm of his, I say, looked for all the world like
a strip of that same patchwork quilt. Indeed, partly
lying on it as the arm did when I first awoke, I could
hardly tell it from the quilt, they so blended their hues
together ; and it was only by the sense of weight and
pressure that I could tell that Queequeg was hugging me.
My sensations were strange. Let me try to explain
them. When I was a child, I well remember a somewhat
similar circumstance that befell me ; whether it was a
reality or a dream, I never could entirely settle. The
circumstance was this. I had been cutting up some
caper or other I think it was trying to crawl up the
chimney, as I had seen a little sweep do a few days
previous ; and my stepmother, who, somehow or other,
was all the time whipping me, or sending me to bed
supperless, my mother dragged me by the legs out
of the chimney and packed me off to bed, though it was
only two o'clock in the afternoon of the 21st June, the
31
32 MOBY-DICK
longest day in the year in our hemisphere. 1 felt dread-
fully. But there was no help for it, so upstairs I went
to my little room in the third floor, undressed myself as
slowly as possible so as to kill time, and with a bitter
sigh got between the sheets.
I lay there dismally calculating that sixteen entire
hours must elapse before I could hope for a resurrection.
Sixteen hours in bed ! the small of my back ached to
think of it. And it was so light too ; the sun shining
in at the window, and a great rattling of coaches in the
streets, and the sound of gay voices all over the house.
I felt worse and worse at last I got up, dressed, and
softly going down in my stockinged feet, sought out my
stepmother, and suddenly threw myself at her feet, be-
seeching her as a particular favour to give me a good
slippering for my misbehaviour ; anything indeed but con-
demning me to lie abed such an unendurable length of
time. But she was the best and most conscientious of
stepmothers, and back I had to go to my room. For
several hours I lay there broad awake, feeling a great
deal worse than I have ever done since, even from the
greatest subsequent misfortunes. At last I must have
fallen into a troubled nightmare of a doze ; and slowly
waking from it half steeped in dreams I opened my
eyes, and the before sunlit room was now wrapped in
outer darkness. Instantly I felt a shock running through
all my frame ; nothing was to be seen, and nothing was
to be heard ; but a supernatural hand seemed placed
in mine. My arm hung over the counterpane, and the
nameless, unimaginable, silent form or phantom, to which
the hand belonged, seemed closely seated by my bedside.
For what seemed ages piled on ages, I lay there, frozen
with the most awful fears, not daring to drag away my
hand ; yet ever thinking that if I could but stir it one
single inch, the horrid spell would be broken. I knew
THE COUNTERPANE 33
not how this consciousness at last glided away from me ;
but waking in the morning, I shudderingly remembered
it all, and for days and weeks and months afterward I
lost myself in confounding attempts to explain the mystery.
Nay, to this very hour, I often puzzle myself with it.
Now, take away the awful fear, and my sensations at
feeling the supernatural hand in mine were very similar,
in their strangeness, to those which I experienced on
waking up and seeing Queequeg 's pagan arm thrown
round me. But at length all the past night's events
soberly recurred, one by one, in fixed reality, and then I
lay only alive to the comical predicament. For though
I tried to move his arm unlock his bridegroom clasp
yet, sleeping as he was, he still hugged me tightly, as
though naught but death should part us twain. I now
strove to rouse him * Queequeg ! ' but his only answer
was a snore. I then rolled over, my neck feeling as if
it were in a horse-collar ; and suddenly felt a slight
scratch. Throwing aside the counterpane, there lay the
tomahawk sleeping by the savage's side, as if it were a
hatchet -faced baby. A pretty pickle, truly, thought I ;
abed here in a strange house in the broad day, with a
cannibal and a tomahawk ! ' Queequeg ! in the name
of goodness, Queequeg, wake ! ' At length, by dint of
much wriggling, and loud and incessant expostulations
upon the unbecomingness of his hugging a fellow-male in
that matrimonial sort of style, I succeeded in extracting
a grunt ; and presently, he drew back his arm, shook
himself all over like a Newfoundland dog just from the
water, and sat up in bed, stiff as a pikestaff, looking at
me, and rubbing his eyes as if he did not altogether re-
member how I came to be there, though a dim conscious-
ness of knowing something about me seemed slowly
dawning over him. Meanwhile, I lay quietly eyeing him,
having no serious misgivings now, and bent upon narrowly
VOL. i. c
34 MOBY-DICK
observing so curious a creature. When, at last, his mind
seemed made up touching the character of his bed-
fellow, and he became, as it were, reconciled to the fact,
he jumped out upon the floor, and by certain signs and
sounds gave me to understand that, if it pleased me, he
would dress first and then leave me to dress afterward,
leaving the whole apartment to myself. Thinks I,
Queequeg, under the circumstances, this is a very civilised
overture ; but, the truth is, these savages have an innate
sense of delicacy, say what you will ; it is marvellous how
essentially polite they are. I pay this particular compli-
ment to Queequeg, because he treated me with so much
civility and consideration, while I was guilty of great
rudeness ; staring at him from the bed, and watching all
his toilet motions ; for the time my curiosity getting the
better of my breeding. Nevertheless, a man like Quee-
queg you don't see every day, he and his ways were well
worth unusual regarding.
He commenced dressing at top by donning his beaver
hat, a very tall one, by the by, and then still minus his
trowsers he hunted up his boots. What under the
heavens he did it for, I cannot tell, but his next movement
was to crush himself boots in hand, and hat on under
the bed ; when, from sundry violent gaspings and strain-
ings, I inferred he was hard at work booting himself ;
though by no law of propriety that I ever heard of is
any man required to be private when putting on his boots.
But Queequeg, do you see, was a creature in the transi-
tion state neither caterpillar nor butterfly. He was
just enough civilised to show off his outlandishness in the
strangest possible manner. His education was not yet
completed. He was an undergraduate. If he had not
been a small degree civilised, he very probably would
not have troubled himself with boots at all ; but then,
if he had not been still a savage, he never would have
THE COUNTERPANE 35
dreamt of getting under the bed to put them on. At
last, he emerged with his hat very much dented and
crushed down over his eyes, and began creaking and
limping about the room, as if, not being much accustomed
to boots, his pair of damp, wrinkled cowhide ones pro-
bably not made to order either rather pinched and
tormented him at the first go off of a bitter cold morning.
Seeing, now, that there were no curtains to the window,
and that the street being very narrow, the house opposite
commanded a plain view into the room, and observing
more and more the indecorous figure that Queequeg
made, staving about with little else but his hat and boots
on, I begged him as well as I could, to accelerate his
toilet somewhat, and particularly to get into his panta-
loons as soon as possible. He complied, and then pro-
ceeded to wash himself. At that time in the morning
any Christian would have washed his face ; but Queequeg,
to my amazement, contented himself with restricting
his ablutions to his chest, arms, and hands. He then
donned his waistcoat, and taking up a piece of hard soap
on the wash-stand centre table, dipped it into water and
commenced lathering his face. I was watching to see
where he kept his razor, when lo and behold, he takes the
harpoon from the bed corner, slips out the long wooden
stock, unsheathes the head, whets it a little on his boot,
and striding up to the bit of mirror against the wall,
begins a vigorous scraping, or rather harpooning of his
cheeks. Thinks I, Queequeg, this is using Rogers's best
cutlery with a vengeance. Afterward I wondered the
less at this operation when I came to know of what
fine steel the head of a harpoon is made, and how
exceedingly sharp the long straight edges are always kept.
The rest of his toilet was soon achieved, and he proudly
marched out of the room, wrapped up in his great pilot
monkey-jacket, and sporting his harpoon like a marshal's
baton.
CHAPTER V
BREAKFAST
I QUICKLY followed suit, and descending into the bar-room
accosted the grinning landlord very pleasantly. I
cherished no malice toward him, though he had been
skylarking with me not a little in the matter of my
bedfellow.
However, a good laugh is a mighty good thing, and
rather too scarce a good thing ; the more 's the pity. So,
if any one man, in his own proper person, afford stuff for
a good joke to anybody, let him not be backward, but let
him cheerfully allow himself to spend and be spent in
that way. And the man that has anything bountifully
laughable about him, be sure there is more in that man
than you perhaps think for.
The bar-room was now full of the boarders who had been
dropping in the night previous, and whom I had not as
yet had a good look at. They were nearly all whalemen ;
chief mates, and second mates, and third mates, and sea-
carpenters, and sea-coopers, and sea-blacksmiths, and
harpooneers, and ship-keepers ; a brown and brawny
company, with bosky beards ; an unshorn, shaggy set,
all wearing monkey-jackets for morning gowns.
You could pretty plainly tell how long each one had
been ashore. This young fellow's healthy cheek is like
a sun-toasted pear in hue, and would seem to smell
almost as musky ; he cannot have been three days landed
from his Indian voyage. That man next him looks a
few shades lighter ; you might say a touch of satinwood
36
BREAKFAST 37
is in him. In the complexion of a third still lingers a
tropic tawn, but slightly bleached withal ; lie doubtless
has tarried whole weeks ashore. But who could show a
cheek like Queequeg ? which, barred with various tints,
seemed like the Andes' western slope, to show forth in
one array, contrasting climates, zone by zone.
' Grub, ho ! ' now cried the landlord, flinging open a
door, and in we went to breakfast.
They say that men who have seen the world, thereby
become quite at ease in manner, quite self-possessed in
company. Not always, though : Ledyard, the great New
England traveller, and Mungo Park, the Scotch one ; of
all men, they possessed the least assurance in the parlour.
But perhaps the mere crossing of Siberia in a sledge
drawn by dogs as Ledyard did, or the taking a long solitary
walk on an empty stomach, in the negro heart of Africa,
which was the sum of poor Mungo 's performances this
kind of travel, I say, may not be the very best mode of
attaining a high social polish. Still, for the most part,
that sort of thing is to be had anywhere.
These reflections just here are occasioned by the cir-
cumstance that after we were all seated at the table, and
I was preparing to hear some good stories about whaling ;
to my no small surprise nearly every man maintained a
profound silence. And not only that, but they looked
embarrassed. Yes, here were a set of sea-dogs, many of
whom without the slightest bashfulness had boarded
great whales on the high seas entire strangers to them
and duelled them dead without winking ; and yet, here
they sat at a social breakfast table all of the same calling,
all of kindred tastes looking round as sheepishly at
each other as though they had never been out of sight
of some sheepfold among the Green Mountains. A
curious sight ; these bashful bears, these timid warrior
whalemen !
38 MOBY-DICK
But as for Queequeg why, Queequeg sat there among
them at the head of the table, too, it so chanced as
cool as an icicle. To be sure, I cannot say much for his
breeding. His greatest admirer could not have cordially
justified his bringing his harpoon in to breakfast with him,
and using it there without ceremony ; reaching over the
table with it, to the imminent jeopardy of many heads,
and grappling the beefsteaks toward him. But that
was certainly very coolly done by him, and everyone
knows that in most people's estimation, to do anything
coolly is to do it genteelly.
We will not speak of all Queequeg's peculiarities here ;
how he eschewed coffee and hot rolls, and applied his
undivided attention to beefsteaks, done rare. Enough,
that when breakfast was over he withdrew like the rest
into the public room, lighted his tomahawk-pipe, and was
sitting there quietly digesting and smoking with his
inseparable hat on, when I sallied out for a stroll.
CHAPTER VI
THE STREET
IF I had been astonished at first catching a glimpse of so
outlandish an individual as Queequeg circulating among
the polite society of a civilised town, that astonishment
soon departed upon taking my first daylight stroll through
the streets of New Bedford.
In thoroughfares nigh the docks, any considerable sea-
port will frequently offer to view the queerest -looking
nondescripts from foreign parts. Even in Broadway
and Chestnut Streets, Mediterranean mariners will some-
times jostle the affrighted ladies. Regent Street is not
unknown to Lascars and Malays ; and at Bombay, in the
Apollo Green, live Yankees have often scared the natives.
But New Bedford beats all Water Street and Wapping.
In these last -mentioned haunts you see only sailors ; but
in New Bedford actual cannibals stand chatting at street
corners ; savages outright ; many of whom yet carry on
their bones unholy flesh. It makes a stranger stare.
But, besides the Feegeeans, Tongatabooarrs, Erro-
manggoans, Pannangians, and Brighggians, and besides
the wild specimens of the whaling -craft which unheeded
reel about the streets, you will see other sights still more
curious, certainly more comical. There weekly arrive
in this town scores of green Vermonters and New Hamp-
shire men, all athirst for gain and glory in the fishery.
They are mostly young, of stalwart frames ; fellows who
have felled forests, and now seek to drop the axe and
snatch the whale-lance. Many are as green as the Green
40 MOBY-DICK
Mountains whence they came. In some things you would
think them but a few hours old. Look there ! that chap
strutting round the corner. He wears a beaver hat and
swallow-tailed coat, girdled with a sailor -belt and a sheath-
knife. Here comes another with a sou '-wester and a
bombazine cloak.
No town-bred dandy will compare with a country-bred
one I mean a downright bumpkin dandy a fellow that,
in the dog-days, will mow his two acres in buckskin
gloves for fear of tanning his hands. Now when a country
dandy like this takes it into his head to make a distin-
guished reputation, and joins the great whale-fishery, you
should see the comical things he does upon reaching the
seaport. In bespeaking his sea -out fit, he orders bell-
buttons to his waistcoats ; straps to his canvas trowsers.
Ah, poor Hay-Seed ! how bitterly will burst those straps
in the first howling gale, when thou art driven, straps/
buttons, and all, down the throat of the tempest.
But think not that this famous town has only har-
pooneers, cannibals, and bumpkins to show her visitors.
Not at all. Still New Bedford is a queer place. Had it
not been for us whalemen, that tract of land would this
day perhaps have been in as howling condition as the
coast of Labrador. As it is, parts of her back country
are enough to frighten one, they look so bony. The town
itself is perhaps the dearest place to live in, hi all New
England. It is a land of oil, true enough : but not like
Caanan ; a land, also, of corn and wine. The streets do
not run with milk ; nor in the spring-time do they pave
them with fresh eggs. Yet, in spite of this, nowhere in
all America will you find more patrician-like houses ;
parks and gardens more opulent, than hi New Bedford.
Whence came they ? how planted upon this once scraggy
scoria of a country ?
Go and gaze upon the iron emblematical harpoons
THE STREET 41
round yonder lofty mansion, and your question will be
answered. Yes ; all these brave houses and flowery
gardens came from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans.
One and all, they were harpooned and dragged up hither
from the bottom of the sea. Can Herr Alexander per-
form a feat like that ?
In New Bedford, fathers, they say, give whales for
dowers to their daughters, and portion off their nieces
with a few porpoises apiece. You must go to New Bed-
ford to see a brilliant wedding ; for, they say, they have
reservoirs of oil in every house, and every night recklessly
burn their lengths in spermaceti candles.
In summer time, the town is sweet to see ; full of fine
maples long avenues of green and gold. And in August,
high in air, the beautiful and bountiful horse-chestnuts,
candelabra-wise, proffer the passer-by their tapering
upright cones of congregated blossoms. So omnipotent \
is art ; which in many a district of New Bedford has
superinduced bright terraces of flowers upon the barren
refuse rocks thrown aside at Creation's final day.
And the women of New Bedford, they bloom like their
own red roses. But roses only bloom in summer ; whereas
the fine carnation of their cheeks is perennial as sunlight
in the seventh heavens. Elsewhere match that bloom
of theirs, ye cannot, save in Salem, where they tell me
the young girls breathe such musk, their sailor sweet-
hearts smell them miles off shore, as though they were
drawing nigh the odorous Moluccas instead of the Puritanic
sands.
CHAPTER VII
THE CHAPEL
IN this same New Bedford there stands a Whaleman's
Chapel, and few are the moody fishermen, shortly bound
for the Indian Ocean or Pacific, who fail to make a Sunday
visit to the spot. I am sure that I did not.
Returning from my first morning stroll, I again sallied
out upon this special errand. The sky had changed from
clear, sunny cold, to driving sleet and mist. Wrapping
myself in my shaggy jacket of the cloth called bearskin,
I fought my way against the stubborn storm. Entering,
I found a small scattered congregation of sailors, and
sailors' wives and widows. A muffled silence reigned,
only broken at times by the shrieks of the storm. Each
silent worshipper seemed purposely sitting apart from
the other, as if each silent grief were insular and incom-
municable. The chaplain had not yet arrived ; and there
these silent islands of men and women sat steadfastly
eyeing several marble tablets, with black borders, masoned
into the wall on either side the pulpit. Three of them
ran something like the following, but I do not pretend to
quote :
SACRED
OF
JOHN TALBOT,
Who, at the age of eighteen, was lost overboard,
Near the Isle of Desolation, off Patagonia,
November 1st, 1836.
THIS TABLET
Is erected to his Memory
BY HIS SISTER.
42
THE CHAPEL 43
SACRED
^o tlje em orp
OF
ROBERT LONG, WILLIS ELLERY,
NATHAN COLEMAN, WALTER CANNY, SETH MACY,
AND SAMUEL GLEIG,
Forming one of the boats' crews
OF
THE SHIP ELIZA,
Who were towed out of sight by a Whale,
On the Ofi-shore Ground in the
PACIFIC,
December 3lst, 1839.
THIS MABBLB
Is here placed by their surviving
Shipmates
SACKED
Eo tfje
OF
The late
CAPTAIN EZEKIEL HARDY,
Who in the bows of his boat was killed by a
Sperm Whale on the coast of Japan,
August 3d, 1833.
THIS TABLET
Is erected to his Memory
BY
HIS WIDOW.
Shaking off the sleet from my ice-glazed hat and jacket,
I seated myself near the door, and turning sideways was
surprised to see Queequeg near me. Affected by the
solemnity of the scene, there was a wondering gaze of
incredulous curiosity in his countenance. This savage
was the only person present who seemed to notice my
entrance ; because he was the only one who could not
read, and, therefore, was not reading those frigid inscrip-
tions on the wall. Whether any of the relatives of the
44 MOBY-DICK
seamen whose names appeared there were now among
the congregation, I knew not ; but so many are the unre-
corded accidents in the fishery, and so plainly did several
women present wear the countenance if not the trappings
of some unceasing grief, that I feel sure that here before
me were assembled those, in whose unhealing hearts the
sight of those bleak tablets sympathetically caused the
old wounds to bleed afresh.
Oh ! ye whose dead lie buried beneath the green grass ;
who standing among flowers can say here, here lies my
beloved ; ye know not the desolation that broods in
bosoms like these. What bitter blanks in those black-
bordered marbles which cover no ashes ! What despair
in those immovable inscriptions ! What deadly voids
and unbidden infidelities in the lines that seem to gnaw
upon all Faith, and refuse resurrections to the beings who
have placelessly perished without a grave. As well might
those tablets stand in the cave of Elephanta as here.
Li what census of living creatures, the dead of mankind
are included ; why it is that a universal proverb says of
them, that they tell no tales, though containing more
secrets than the Goodwin Sands ; how it is that to his
name who yesterday departed for the other world, we
prefix so significant and infidel a word, and yet do not
thus entitle him, if he but embarks for the remotest Indies
of this living earth ; why the Life Insurance Companies
pay death-forfeitures upon immortals ; in what eternal,
unstirring paralysis, and deadly, hopeless trance, yet lies
antique Adam who died sixty round centuries ago ; how
it is that we still refuse to be comforted for those who we
nevertheless maintain are dwelling in unspeakable bliss ;
why all the living so strive to hush all the dead ; wherefore
but the rumour of a knocking in a tomb will terrify a
whole city. All these things are not without their
meanings.
THE CHAPEL 45
But Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and
even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital
hope.
It needs scarcely to be told, with what feelings, on the
eve of a Nantucket voyage, I regarded those marble
tablets, and by the murky light of that darkened, doleful
day read the fate of the whalemen who had gone before
me. Yes, Ishmael, the same fate may be thine. But
somehow I grew merry again. Delightful inducements to
embark, fine chance for promotion, it seems ay, a
stove boat will make me an immortal by brevet. Yes,
there is death in this business of whaling a speechlessly
quick chaotic bundling of a man into Eternity. But what
then ? Methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter
of Life and Death. Methinks that what they call my
shadow here on earth is my true substance. Methinks
that in looking at things spiritual, we are too much like
oysters observing the sun through the water, and thinking
that thick water the thinnest of air. Methinks my body
is but the lees of my better being. In fact, take my body
who will, take it I say, it is not me. And therefore three
cheers for Nantucket ; and come a stove boat and stove
body when they will, for stave my soul, Jove himself
cannot.
CHAPTER VIII
THE PULPIT
I HAD not been seated very long ere a man of a certain
venerable robustness entered ; immediately as the storm-
pelted door flew back upon admitting him, a quick regard-
ful eyeing of him by all the congregation sufficiently
attested that this fine old man was the chaplain. Yes,
it was the famous Father Mapple, so called by the whale-
men, among whom he was a very great favourite. He
had been a sailor and a harpooneer in his youth, but for
many years past had dedicated his life to the ministry.
At the time I now write of, Father Mapple was in the
hardy winter of a healthy old age ; that sort of old age
which seems merging into a second flowering youth, for
among all the fissures of his wrinkles, there shone certain
mild gleams of a newly developing bloom the spring
verdure peeping forth even beneath February's snow.
No one having previously heard his history, could for
the first time behold Father Mapple without the utmost
interest, because there were certain engrafted clerical
peculiarities about him, imputable to that adventurous
maritime life he had led. When he entered I observed
that he carried no umbrella, and certainly had not come
in his carriage, for his tarpaulin hat ran down with melting
sleet, and his great pilot-cloth jacket seemed almost to
drag him to the floor with the weight of the water it had
absorbed. However, hat and coat and overshoes were
one by one removed, and hung up in a little space in an
adjacent corner ; when, arrayed in a decent suit, he
quietly approached the pulpit.
46
THE PULPIT 47
Like most old-fashioned pulpits, it was a very lofty one,
and since a regular stairs to such a height would, by its
long angle with the floor, seriously contract the already
small area of the chapel, the architect, it seemed, had
acted upon the hint of Father Mapple, and finished the
pulpit without a stairs, substituting a perpendicular side
ladder, like those used in mounting a ship from a boat at
sea. The wife of a whaling-captain had provided the chapel
with a handsome pair of red worsted man-ropes for this
ladder, which, being itself nicely headed, and stained with
a mahogany colour, the whole contrivance, considering
what manner of chapel it was, seemed by no means in bad
taste. Halting for an instant at the foot of the ladder,
and with both hands grasping the ornamental knobs
of the man-ropes, Father Mapple cast a look upward,
and then with a truly sailor-like but still reverential
dexterity, hand over hand, mounted the steps as if
ascending the main -top of his vessel.
The perpendicular parts of this side ladder, as is usually
the case with swinging ones, were of cloth-covered rope,
only the rounds were of wood, so that at every step there
was a joint. At my first glimpse of the pulpit, it had not
escaped me that however convenient for a ship, these
joints in the present instance seemed unnecessary. For
I was not prepared to see Father Mapple after gaining
the height, slowly turn round, and stooping over the
pulpit, deliberately drag up the ladder step by step, till
the whole was deposited within, leaving him impregnable
in his little Quebec.
I pondered some time without fully comprehending
the reason for this. Father Mapple enjoyed such a wide
reputation for sincerity and sanctity, that I could not
suspect him of courting notoriety by any mere tricks of
the stage. No, thought I, there must be some sober
reason for this thing ; furthermore, it must symbolise
48 MOBY-DICK
something unseen. Can it be, then, that by that act of
physical isolation, he signifies his spiritual withdrawal for
the time, from all outward worldly ties and connections ?
Yes, for replenished with the meat and wine of the word,
to the faithful man of God, this pulpit, I see, is a self-
containing stronghold a lofty Ehrenbreitstein, with a
perennial well of water within the walls.
But the side ladder was not the only strange feature
of the place, borrowed from the chaplain's former sea-
farings. Between the marble cenotaphs on either hand
of the pulpit, the wall which formed its back was adorned
with a large painting representing a gallant ship beating
against a terrible storm off a lee coast of black rocks and
snowy breakers. But high above the flying scud and
dark-rolling clouds, there floated a little isle of sunlight,
from which beamed forth an angel's face ; and this bright
face shed a distinct spot of radiance upon the ship's tossed
deck, something like that silver plate now inserted into the
Victory's plank where Nelson fell. ' Ah, noble ship/ the
angel seemed to say, 'beat on, beat on, thou noble ship, and
bear a hardy helm ; for lo ! the sun is breaking through ;
the clouds are rolling off serenest azure is at hand.'
Nor was the pulpit itself without a trace of the same
sea -taste that had achieved the ladder and the picture.
Its panelled front was in the likeness of a ship's bluff bows,
and the Holy Bible rested on a projecting piece of scroll
work, fashioned after a ship's fiddle -headed beak.
What could be more full of meaning ? for the pulpit
is ever this earth's foremost part ; all the rest comes in
its rear ; the pulpit leads the world. From thence it is
the storm of God's quick wrath is first descried, and the
bow must bear the earliest brunt. From thence it is the
God of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favourable
winds. Yes, the world 's a ship on its passage out, and
not a voyage complete ; and the pulpit is its prow.
CHAPTER IX
THE SERMON
FATHER MAPPLE rose, and in a mild voice of unassuming
authority ordered the scattered people to condense.
' Starboard gangway, there ! side away to larboard
larboard gangway to starboard ! Midships ! midships ! '
There was a low rumbling of heavy sea-boots among the
benches, and a still slighter shuffling of women's shoes,
and all was quiet again, and every eye on the preacher.
He paused a little ; then kneeling in the pulpit's bows,
folded his large brown hands across his chest, uplifted
his closed eyes, and offered a prayer so deeply devout
that he seemed kneeling and praying at the bottom of
the sea.
This ended, in prolonged solemn tones, like the continual
tolling of a bell in a ship that is foundering at sea in a fog
in such tones he commenced reading the following hymn ;
but changing his manner toward the concluding stanzas,
burst forth with a pealing exultation and joy :
* The ribs and terrors in the whale
Arched over me a dismal gloom,
While all God's sun-lit waves rolled by,
And lift me deepening down to doom.
' I saw the opening maw of hell,
With endless pains and sorrows there ;
Which none but they that feel can tell
Oh, I was plunging to despair.
VOL. I. D
50 MOBY-DICK
4 In black distress, I called my God,
When I could scarce believe him mine,
He bowed his ear to my complaints
No more the whale did me confine.
' With speed he flew to my relief,
As on a radiant dolphin borne ;
Awful, yet bright, as lightning shone
The face of my Deliverer God.
' My song for ever shall record
That terrible, that joyful hour ;
I give the glory to my God,
His all the mercy and the power.'
Nearly all joined in singing this hymn, which swelled
high above the howling of the storm. A brief pause
ensued ; the preacher slowly turned over the leaves of
the Bible, and at last, folding his hand down upon the
proper page, said : ' Beloved shipmates, clinch the last
verse of the first chapter of Jonah " And God had pre-
pared a great fish to swallow up Jonah."
' Shipmates, this book, containing only four chapters
four yarns is one of the smallest strands in the mighty
cable of the Scriptures. Yet what depths of the soul does
Jonah's deep sea-line sound ! what a pregnant lesson to
us is this prophet ! What a noble thing is that canticle
in the fish's belly ! How billow-like and boisterously
grand ! We feel the floods surging over us ; we sound with
him to the kelpy bottom of the waters ; sea-weed and all
the slime of the sea is about us ! But what is this lesson
that the book of Jonah teaches ? Shipmates, it is a two-
stranded lesson ; a lesson to us all as sinful men, and a
lesson to me as a pilot of the living God. As sinful men,
it is a lesson to us all, because it is a story of the sin, hard-
heartedness, suddenly awakened fears, the swift punish- !
THE SERMON 51
ment, repentance, prayers, and finally the deliverance and
joy of Jonah. As with all sinners among men, the sin
of this son of Amittai was in his wilful disobedience of the
command of God never mind now what that command
was, or how conveyed which he found a hard command.
But all the things that God would have us do are hard for
us to do remember that and hence, He oftener com-
mands us than endeavours to persuade. And if we obey
God, we must disobey ourselves ; and it is in this dis-
obeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God
consists.
' With this sin of disobedience in him, Jonah still
further flouts at God, by seeking to flee from Him. He
thinks that a ship made by men will carry him into
countries where God does not reign, but only the captains
of this earth. He skulks about the wharves of Joppa,
and seeks a ship that 's bound for Tarshish. There lurks,
perhaps, a hitherto unheeded meaning here. By all
accounts Tarshish could have been no other city than the
modern Cadiz. That 's the opinion of learned men. And
where is Cadiz, shipmates ? Cadiz is in Spain ; as far by
water, from Joppa, as Jonah could possibly have sailed
in those ancient days, when the Atlantic was an almost
unknown sea. Because Joppa, the modern Jaffa, ship-
mates, is on the most easterly coast of the Mediterranean,
the Syrian ; and Tarshish or Cadiz more than two thousand
miles to the westward from that, just outside the Straits
of Gibraltar. See ye not then, shipmates, that Jonah
sought to flee world- wide from God ? Miserable man !
Oh ! most contemptible and worthy of all scorn ; with
slouched hat and guilty eye, skulking from his God ;
prowling among the shipping like a vile burglar hastening
to cross the seas. So disordered, self -condemning is his
look, that had there been policemen in those days, Jonah,
on the mere suspicion of something wrong, had been
52 MOBY-DICK
arrested ere he touched a deck. How plainly he 's a
fugitive ! no baggage, not a hat-box, valise, or carpet-
bag, no friends accompany him to the wharf with their
adieux. At last, after much dodging search, he finds the
Tarshish ship receiving the last items of her cargo ; and
as he steps on board to see its captain in the cabin, all
the sailors for the moment desist from hoisting in the
goods, to mark the stranger's evil eye. Jonah sees this ;
but in vain he tries to look ah 1 ease and confidence ; in
vain essays his wretched smile. Strong intuitions of the
man assure the mariners he can be no innocent. In their
gamesome but still serious way, one whispers to the other
" Jack, he 's robbed a widow " ; or, " Joe, do you mark
him ; he 's a bigamist " ; or, " Harry, lad, I guess he 's the
adulterer that broke jail in old Gomorrah, or belike, one
of the missing murderers from Sodom." Another runs
to read the bill that 's stuck against the spile upon the
wharf to which the ship is moored, offering five hundred
gold coins for the apprehension of a. parricide, and con-
taining a description of his person. He reads, and looks
from Jonah to the bill ; while all his sympathetic ship-
mates now crowd round Jonah, prepared to lay their
hands upon him. Frighted Jonah trembles, and summon-
ing all his boldness to his face, only looks so much the
more a coward. He will not confess himself suspected ;
but that itself is strong suspicion. So he makes the best
of it ; and when the sailors find him not to be the man that
is advertised, they let him pass, and he descends into the
cabin.
' " Who 's there ? " cries the captain at his busy desk,
hurriedly making out his papers for the Customs "Who 's
there ? " Oh ! how that harmless question mangles
Jonah ! For the instant he almost turns to flee again.
But he rallies. " I seek a passage in this ship to Tarshish ;
how soon sail ye, sir ? " Thus far the busy captain had
THE SERMON 53
not looked up to Jonah, though the man now stands
before him ; but no sooner does he hear that hollow voice,
than he darts a scrutinising glance. " We sail with the
next coming tide," at last he slowly answered, still
intently eyeing him. " No sooner, sir ? " " Soon enough
for any honest man that goes a passenger." Ha ! Jonah,
that 's another stab. But he swiftly calls away the
captain from that scent. " I '11 sail with ye," he says,
" the passage money, how much is that ? I '11 pay
now." For it is particularly written, shipmates, as if it
were a thing not to be overlooked in this history, " that
he paid the fare thereof " ere the craft did sail. And
taken with the context, this is full of meaning.
' Now Jonah's captain, shipmates, was one whose dis-
cernment detects crime in any, but whose cupidity exposes
it only in the penniless. In this world, shipmates, sin
that pays its way can travel freely, and without a pass-
port ; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all
frontiers. So Jonah's captain prepares to test the length
of Jonah's purse, ere he judge him openly. He charges
him thrice the usual sum ; and it 's assented to. Then
the captain knows that Jonah is a fugitive ; but at the
same time resolves to help a flight that paves its rear with
gold. Yet when Jonah fairly takes out his purse, prudent
suspicions still molest the captain. He rings every coin
to find a counterfeit. Not a forger, anyway, he mutters ;
and Jonah is put down for his passage. " Point out my
state-room, sir," says Jonah now, " I 'm travel- weary ;
I need sleep." "Thou look'st like it," says the captain,
" there 's thy room." Jonah enters, and would lock the
door, but the lock contains no key. Hearing him foolishly
fumbling there, the captain laughs lowly to himself, and
mutters something about the doors of convicts' cells being
never allowed to be locked within. All dressed and dusty
as he is, Jonah throws himself into his berth, and finds
54 MOBY-DICK
the little state-room ceiling almost resting on his forehead.
The air is close, and Jonah gasps. Then, in that con-
tracted hole, sunk, too, beneath the ship's water-line,
Jonah feels the heralding presentiment of that stifling
hour, when the whale shall hold him in the smallest of
his bowel's wards.
' Screwed at its axis against the side, a swinging lamp
slightly oscillates in Jonah's room ; and the ship, heeling
over toward the wharf with the weight of the last bales
received, the lamp, flame and all, though in slight motion,
still maintains a permanent obliquity with reference to
the room ; though, in truth, infallibly straight itself, it
but made obvious the false, lying levels among which it
hung. The lamp alarms and frightens Jonah ; as lying
in his berth his tormented eyes roll round the place, and
this thus far successful fugitive finds no refuge for his
restless glance. But that contradiction in the lamp more
and more appals him. The floor, the ceiling, and the
side, are all awry. " Oh ! so my conscience hangs in
me ! " he groans, " straight upward, so it burns ; but the
chambers of my soul are all in crookedness ! "
' Like one who after a night of drunken revelry hies
to his bed, still reeling, but with conscience yet pricking
him, as the plungings of the Roman race -horse but so
much the more strike his steel tags into him ; as one who
in that miserable plight still turns and turns in giddy
anguish, praying God for annihilation until the fit be
passed ; and at last amid the whirl of woe he feels, a deep
stupor steals over him, as over the man who bleeds to
death, for conscience is the wound, and there 's naught
to staunch it ; so, after sore wrestlings in his berth,
Jonah's prodigy of ponderous misery drags him drowning
down to sleep.
c And now the time of tide has come ; the ship casts
off her cables ; and from the deserted wharf the un-
THE SERMON 55
cheered ship for Tarshish, all careening, glides to sea.
That ship, my friends, was the first of recorded smugglers !
the contraband was Jonah. But the sea rebels ; he will
not bear the wicked burden. A dreadful storm comes on,
the ship is like to break. But now when the boatswain
calls all hands to lighten her ; when boxes, bales, and
jars are clattering overboard ; when the wind is shrieking,
and the men are yelling, and every plank thunders with
trampling feet right over Jonah's head ; in all this raging
tumult, Jonah sleeps his hideous sleep. He sees no black
sky and raging sea, feels not the reeling timbers, and little
hears he or heeds he the far rush of the mighty whale,
which even now with open mouth is cleaving the seas
after him. Ay, shipmates, Jonah was gone down into
the sides of the ship a berth in the cabin as I have taken
it and was fast asleep. But the frightened master comes
to him, and shrieks hi his dead ear, " What meanest thou,
sleeper ! arise ! " Startled from his lethargy by that
direful cry, Jonah staggers to his feet, and stumbling to
the deck, grasps a shroud, to look out upon the sea. But
at that moment he is sprung upon by a panther billow
leaping over the bulwarks. Wave after wave thus leaps
into the ship, and finding no speedy vent runs roaring
fore and aft, till the mariners come nigh to drowning
while yet afloat. And ever, as the white moon shows her
affrighted face from the steep gullies in the blackness
overhead, aghast Jonah sees the rearing bowsprit pointing
high upward, but soon beat downward again toward the
tormented deep.
' Terrors upon terrors run shouting through his soul.
In all his cringing attitudes, the God-fugitive is now too
plainly known. The sailors mark him ; more and more
certain grow their suspicions of him, and at last, fully
to test the truth, by referring the whole matter to high
Heaven, they fall to casting lots, to see for whose cause
56 MOBY-DICK
this great tempest was upon them. The lot is Jonah's ;
that discovered, then how furiously they mob him with
their questions. " What is thine occupation ? Whence
comest thou ? Thy country ? What people ? " But
mark now, my shipmates, the behaviour of poor Jonah.
The eager mariners but ask him who he is, and where
from ; whereas, they not only receive an answer to those
questions, but likewise another answer to a question not
put by them, but the unsolicited answer is forced from
Jonah by the hard hand of God that is upon him.
' " I am a Hebrew," he cries and then " I fear the
Lord the God of Heaven who hath made the sea and the
dry land ! " Fear him, O Jonah ? Ay, well mightest
thou fear the Lord God then ! Straightway, he now goes
on to make a full confession ; whereupon the mariners
became more and more appalled, but still are pitiful.
For when Jonah, not yet supplicating God for mercy,
since he but too well knew the darkness of his deserts,
when wretched Jonah cries out to them to take him and
cast him forth into the sea, for he knew that for his sake
this great tempest was upon them ; they mercifully turn
from him, and seek by other means to save the ship.
But all in vain ; the indignant gale howls louder ; then,
with one hand raised invokingly to God, with the other
they not unreluctantly lay hold of Jonah.
' And now behold Jonah taken up as an anchor and
dropped into the sea ; when instantly an oily calmness
floats out from the east, and the sea is still, as Jonah
carries down the gale with him, leaving smooth water
behind. He goes down in the whirling heart of such a
masterless commotion that he scarce heeds the moment
when he drops seething into the yawning jaws awaiting
him ; and the whale shoots-to all his ivory teeth, like so
many white bolts, upon his prison. Then Jonah prayed
unto the Lord out of the fish's belly. But observe his
THE SERMON 57
prayer, and learn a weighty lesson. For sinful as he is,
Jonah does not weep and wail for direct deliverance.
He feels that his dreadful punishment is just. He leaves
all his deliverance to God, contenting himself with this,
that spite of all his pains and pangs, he will still look
toward His holy temple. And here, shipmates, is true
and faithful repentance ; not clamorous for pardon, but
grateful for punishment. And how pleasing to God was
this conduct in Jonah, is shown in the eventual deliver-
ance of him from the sea and the whale. Shipmates, I
do not place Jonah before you to be copied for his sin,
but I do place him before you as a model for repentance.
Sin not ; but if you do, take heed to repent of it like Jonah. '
While he was speaking these words, the howling of the
shrieking, slanting storm without seemed to add new
power to the preacher, who, when describing Jonah's sea-
storm, seemed tossed by a storm himself. His deep chest
heaved as with a ground-swell ; his tossed arms seemed
the warring elements at work ; and the thunders that
rolled away from off his swarthy brow, and the light
leaping from his eye, made all his simple hearers look on
him with a quick fear that was strange to them.
There now came a lull in his look, as he silently turned
over the leaves of the Book once more ; and, at last,
standing motionless, with closed eyes, for the moment,
seemed communing with God and himself.
But again he leaned over toward the people, and
bowing his head lowly, with an aspect of the deepest
yet manliest humility, he spake these words :
c Shipmates, God has laid but one hand upon you ;
both his hands press upon me. I have read ye by what
murky light may be mine the lesson that Jonah teaches
to all sinners ; and therefore to ye, and still more to me,
for I am a greater sinner than ye. And now how gladly
would I come down from this mast-head and sit on the
58 MOBY-DICK
hatches there where you sit, and listen as you listen,
while some one of you reads me that other and more
awful lesson which Jonah teaches to me, as a pilot of the
living God. How being an anointed pilot -prophet, or
speaker of true things, and bidden by the Lord to sound
those unwelcome truths in the ears of a wicked Nineveh,
Jonah, appalled at the hostility he should raise, fled from
his mission, and sought to escape his duty and his God by
taking ship at Joppa. But God is everywhere ; Tarshish
he never reached. As we have seen, God came upon him
in the whale, and swallowed him down to living gulfs
of doom, and with swift slantings tore him along " into
the midst of the seas," where the eddying depths sucked
him ten thousand fathoms down, and " the weeds were
wrapped about his head," and all the watery world of woe
bowled over him. Yet even then beyond the reach of any
plummet " out of the belly of hell " when the whale
grounded upon the ocean's utmost bones, even then, God
heard the engulphed, repenting prophet when he cried.
Then God spake unto the fish ; and from the shuddering
cold and blackness of the sea, the whale came breaching
up toward the warm and pleasant sun, and all the delights
of air and earth ; and " vomited out Jonah upon the dry
land " ; when the word of the Lord came a second time ;
and Jonah, bruised and beaten his ears, like two sea-
shells, still multitudinously murmuring of the ocean
Jonah did the Almighty's bidding. And what was that,
shipmates ? To preach the Truth to the face of False-
hood ! That was it !
' This, shipmates, this is that other lesson ; and we
to that pilot of the living God who slights it. Woe to
him whom this world charms from Gospel duty ! Woe
to him who seeks to pour oil upon the waters when God
has brewed them into a gale ! Woe to him who seeks
to please rather than to appal ! Woe to him whose good
THE SERMON 59
name is more to him than goodness ! Woe to him who,
in this world, courts not dishonour ! Woe to him who
would not be true, even though to be false were salva-
tion ! Yea, woe to him who, as the great Pilot Paul has
it, while preaching to others is himself a castaway ! '
He drooped and fell away from himself for a moment ;
then lifting his face to them again, showed a deep joy
in his eyes, as he cried out with a heavenly enthusiasm,
' But oh ! shipmates ! on the starboard hand of every
woe, there is a sure delight ; and higher the top of that
delight, than the bottom of the woe is deep. Is not the
main-truck higher than the kelson is low ? Delight is to
him a far, far upward, and inward delight who against
the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands
forth his own inexorable self. Delight is to him whose
strong arms yet support him, when the ship of this base
treacherous world has gone down beneath him. Delight
is to him, who gives no quarter in the truth, and kills,
burns, and destroys all sin though he pluck it out from
under the robes of Senators and Judges. Delight, top-
gallant delight is to him, who acknowledges no law or
lord, but the Lord his God, and is only a patriot to heaven.
Delight is to him, whom all the waves of the billows of
the seas of the boisterous mob can never shake from this
sure Keel of the Ages. And eternal delight and delicious-
ness will be his, who coming to lay him down, can say with
his final breath Father ! chiefly known to me by
Thy rod mortal or immortal, here I die. I have striven
to be Thine, more than to be this world's, or mine own.
Yet this is nothing ; I leave eternity to Thee ; for what
is man that he should live out the lifetime of his God 1 '
He said no more, but slowly waving a benediction,
covered his face with his hands, and so remained kneeling,
till all the people had departed, and he was left alone in
the place.
CHAPTER X
A BOSOM FRIEND
RETURNING to the Spouter-Inn from the Chapel, I found
Queequeg there quite alone ; he having left the Chapel
before the benediction some time. He was sitting on a
bench before the fire, with his feet on the stove hearth,
and in one hand was holding close up to his face that
little negro idol of his ; peering hard into its face, and
with a jack-knife gently whittling away at its nose,
meanwhile humming to himself in his heathenish way.
But being now interrupted, he put up the image ; and
pretty soon, going to the table, took up a large book there,
and placing it on his lap began counting the pages with
deliberate regularity ; at every fiftieth page as I fancied
stopping a moment, looking vacantly around him,
and giving utterance to a long-drawn gurgling whistle
of astonishment. He would then begin again at the next
fifty ; seeming to commence at number one each time,
as though he could not count more than fifty, and it
was only by such a large number of fifties being found
together, that his astonishment at the multitude of pages
was excited.
With much interest I sat watching him. Savage
though he was, and hideously marred about the face
at least to my taste his countenance yet had a something
in it which was by no means disagreeable. You cannot
hide the soul. Through all his unearthly tattooings, I
thought I saw the traces of a simple honest heart ; and
in his large, deep eyes, fiery black and bold, there seemed
60
A BOSOM FRIEND 61
tokens of a spirit that would dare a thousand devils.
And besides all this, there was a certain lofty bearing
about the pagan, which even his uncouthness could not
altogether maim. He looked like a man who had never
cringed and never had had a creditor. Whether it was,
too, that his head being shaved, his forehead was drawn
out in freer and brighter relief, and looked more expansive
than it otherwise would, this I will not venture to decide ;
but certain it was his head was phrenologically an ex-
cellent one. It may seem ridiculous, but it reminded me
of General Washington's head, as seen in the popular
busts of him. It had the same long regularly graded
retreating slope from above the brows, which were like-
wise very projecting, like two long promontories thickly
wooded on top. Queequeg was George Washington
cannibalistically developed.
Whilst I was thus closely scanning him, half pretending
meanwhile to be looking out at the storm from the case-
ment, he never heeded my presence, never troubled him-
self with so much as a single glance ; but appeared wholly
occupied with counting the pages of the marvellous book.
Considering how sociably we had been sleeping together
the night previous, and especially considering the affection-
ate arm I had found thrown over me upon waking in the
morning, I thought this indifference of his very strange.
But savages are strange beings ; at times you do not
know exactly how to take them. At first they are over-
awing ; their calm self-collectedness of simplicity seems
a Socratic wisdom. I had noticed also that Queequeg
never consorted at all, or but very little, with the other
seamen in the inn. He made no advances whatever ;
appeared to have no desire to enlarge the circle of his
acquaintances. All this struck me as mighty singular ;
yet, upon second thoughts, there was something almost
sublime in it. Here was a man some twenty thousand
I
62 MOBY-DICK
miles from home, by the way of Cape Horn, that is
which was the only way he could get there thrown
among people as strange to him as though he were in the
planet Jupiter ; and yet he seemed entirely at his ease ;
preserving the utmost serenity ; content with his own
companionship ; always equal to himself. Surely this
was a touch of fine philosophy ; though no doubt he had
never heard there was such a thing as that. But, per-
haps, to be true philosophers, we mortals should not
be conscious of so living or so striving. So soon as I
hear that such or such a man gives himself out for a
philosopher, I conclude that, like the dyspeptic old woman,
he must have ' broken his digester.'
As I sat there in that now lonely room ; the fire burn-
ing low, in that mild stage when, after its first intensity
has warmed the air, it then only glows to be looked at ;
the evening shades and phantoms gathering round the
casements, and peering in upon us silent, solitary twain ;
the storm booming without in solemn swells ; I began to
be sensible of strange feelings. I felt a melting in me.
No more my splintered heart and maddened hand were
turned against the wolfish world. This soothing savage
had redeemed it. There he sat, his very indifference
speaking a nature in which there lurked no civilised
hypocrisies and bland deceits. Wild he was ; a very
sight of sights to see ; yet I began to feel myself mysteri-
ously drawn toward him. And those same things that
would have repelled most others, they were the very
magnets that thus drew me. 1 11 try a pagan friend,
thought I, since Christian kindness has proved but hollow
courtesy. I drew my bench near him, and made some
friendly signs and hints, doing my best to talk with him
meanwhile. At first he little noticed these advances ;
but presently, upon my referring to his last night's
hospitalities, he made out to ask me whether we were
A BOSOM FRIEND
63
again to be bedfellows. I told him yes ; whereat I
thought he looked pleased, perhaps a little complimented.
We then turned over the book together, and I en-
deavoured to explain to him the purpose of the printing,
and the meaning of the few pictures that were in it. Thus
I soon engaged his interest ; and from that we went to
jabbering the best we could about the various outer sights
to be seen in this famous town. Soon I proposed a social
smoke ; and, producing his pouch and tomahawk, he
quietly offered me a puff. And then we sat exchanging
puffs from that wild pipe of his, and keeping it regularly
passing between us.
If there yet lurked any ice of indifference toward me
in the pagan's breast, this pleasant, genial smoke we had
soon thawed it out, and left us cronies. He seemed to
take to me quite as naturally and unbiddenly as I to him ;
and when our smoke was over, he pressed his forehead
against mine, clasped me round the waist, and said that
henceforth we were married ; meaning, in his country's
phrase, that we were bosom friends ; he would gladly
die for me, if need should be. In a countryman this
sudden flame of friendship would have seemed far too
premature, a thing to be much distrusted ; but in this
simple savage those old rules would not apply.
After supper, and another social chat and smoke, we
went to our room together. He made me a present of
his embalmed head ; took out his enormous tobacco
wallet, and groping under the tobacco, drew out some
thirty dollars in silver ; then spreading them on the
table, and mechanically dividing them into two equal
portions, pushed one of them toward me, and said it was
mine. I was going to remonstrate ; but he silenced me
by pouring them into my trowsers' pockets. I let them
stay. He then went about his evening prayers, took
out his idol, and removed the paper fire-board. By
64 MOBY-DICK
certain signs and symptoms, I thought he seemed anxious
for me to join him ; but well knowing what was to follow,
I deliberated a moment whether, in case he invited me,
I would comply or otherwise.
I was a good Christian ; born and bred in the bosom
of the infallible Presbyterian Church. How then could
I unite with this wild idolater in worshipping his piece of
wood ? But what is worship ? thought I. Do you
suppose now, Ishmael, that the magnanimous God of
heaven and earth pagans and all included can possibly
be jealous of an insignificant bit of black wood ? Im-
possible ! But what is worship ? to do the will of
God ? that is worship. And what is the will of God ?
to do to my fellow-man what I would have my fellow-man
to do to me that is the will of God. Now, Queequeg is
my fellow- man. And what do I wish that this Queequeg
would do to me ? Why, unite with me in my particular
Presbyterian form of worship. Consequently, I must
then unite with him in his ; ergo, I must turn idolater.
So I kindled the shavings ; helped prop up the innocent
little idol ; offered him burnt biscuit with Queequeg ;
salaamed before him twice or thrice ; kissed his nose ;
and that done, we undressed and went to bed, at peace
with our own consciences and all the world. But we
did not go to sleep without some little chat.
How it is I know not ; but there is no place like a bed
for confidential disclosures between friends. Man and
wife, they say, there open the very bottom of their souls
to each other ; and some old couples often lie and chat
over old times till nearly morning. Thus, then, in our
hearts' honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg a cosy, loving
pair.
CHAPTER XI
NIGHTGOWN
WE had lain thus in bed, chatting and napping at short
intervals, and Queequeg now and then affectionately
throwing his brown tattooed legs over mine, and then
drawing them back ; so entirely sociable and free and easy
were we ; when, at last, by reason of our confabulations,
what little nappishness remained in us altogether departed,
and we felt like getting up again, though day-break was
yet some way down the future.
Yes, we became very wakeful ; so much so that our
recumbent position began to grow wearisome, and by
little and little we found ourselves sitting up ; the clothes
well tucked around us, leaning against the head-board
with our four knees drawn up close together, and our two
noses bending over them, as if our knee-pans were warm-
ing-pans. We felt very nice and snug, the more so since
it was so chilly out of doors ; indeed out of bed-clothes
too, seeing that there was no fire in the room. The more
so, I say, because truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some
small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality
in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast.
Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you
are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time,
then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more.
But if, like Queequeg and me in the bed, the tip of your
nose or the crown of your head be slightly chilled, why
then, indeed, in the general consciousness you feel most
delightfully and unmistakably warm. For this reason
VOL. i. E
66 MOBY-DICK
a sleeping apartment should never be furnished with a
fire, which is one of the luxurious discomforts of the rich.
For the height of this sort of deliciousness is to have
nothing but the blanket between you and your snugness
and the cold of the outer air. Then there you lie
like the one warm spark in the heart of an arctic
crystal.
We had been sitting in this crouching manner for some
time, when all at once I thought I would open my eyes ;
for when between sheets, whether by day or by night,
and whether asleep or awake, I have a way of always
keeping my eyes shut, in order the more to concentrate
the snugness of being in bed. Because no man can ever
feel his own identity aright except his eyes be closed ; as
if darkness were indeed the proper element of our essences,
though light be more congenial to our clayey part. Upon
opening my eyes then, and coming out of my own pleasant
and self-created darkness into the imposed and coarse
outer gloom of the unilluminated twelve-o'clock-at-night,
I experienced a disagreeable revulsion. Nor did I at all
object to the hint from Queequeg that perhaps it were best
to strike a light, seeing that we were so wide awake ; and
besides he felt a strong desire to have a few quiet puffs
from his tomahawk. Be it said, that though I had felt
such a strong repugnance to his smoking in the bed the
night before, yet see how elastic our stiff prejudices grow
when love once comes to bend them. For now I liked
nothing better than to have Queequeg smoking by me,
even in bed, because he seemed to be full of such serene
household joy then. I no more felt unduly concerned
for the landlord's policy of insurance. I was only alive
to the condensed confidential comfortableness of sharing
a pipe and a blanket with a real friend. With our shaggy
jackets drawn about our shoulders, we now passed the
tomahawk from one to the other, till slowly there grew
NIGHTGOWN 67
over us a blue hanging tester of smoke, illuminated by
the flame of the new-lit lamp.
Whether it was that this undulating tester rolled the
savage away to far distant scenes, I know not, but he now
spoke of his native island ; and, eager to hear his history,
I begged him to go on and tell it. He gladly complied.
Though at the time I but ill comprehended not a few of
his words, yet subsequent disclosures, when I had become
more familiar with his broken phraseology, now enable
me to present the whole story such as it may prove in
the mere skeleton I give.
CHAPTER XII
BIOGRAPHICAL
QUEEQUEG was a native of Rokovoko, an island far away
to the west and south. It is not down in any map ; true
places never are.
When a new-hatched savage running wild about his
native woodlands in a grass clout, followed by the nib-
bling goats, as if he were a green sapling ; even then, in
Queequeg's ambitious soul, lurked a strong desire to see
something more of Christendom than a specimen whaler
or two. His father was a High Chief, a King ; his uncle
a High Priest ; and on the maternal side he boasted aunts
who were the wives of unconquerable warriors. There
was excellent blood in his veins royal stuff ; though
sadly vitiated, I fear, by the cannibal propensity he
nourished in his untutored youth.
A Sag Harbour ship visited his father's bay, and Quee-
queg sought a passage to Christian lands. But the ship,
having her full complement of seamen, spurned his suit ;
and not all the King his father's influence could prevail.
But Queequeg vowed a vow. Alone in his canoe, he
paddled off to a distant strait, which he knew the ship
must pass through when she quitted the island. On one
side was a coral reef ; on the other a low tongue of land,
covered with mangrove thickets that grew out into the
water. Hiding his canoe, still afloat, among these thickets,
with its prow seaward, he sat down in the stern, paddle
low in hand ; and when the ship was gliding by, like a
flash he darted out ; gained her side ; with one backward
68
BIOGRAPHICAL 69
dash of his foot capsized and sank his canoe ; climbed
up the chains ; and throwing himself at full length upon
the deck, grappled a ring-bolt there, and swore not to let
it go, though hacked in pieces.
In vain the captain threatened to throw him overboard ;
suspended a cutlass over his naked wrists ; Queequeg was
the son of a King, and Queequeg budged not. Struck
by his desperate dauntlessness, and his wild desire to visit
Christendom, the captain at last relented, and told him
he might make himself at home. But this fine young
savage this sea Prince of Wales never saw the captain's
cabin. They put him down among the sailors, and made
a whaleman of him. But like Czar Peter content to toil
in the shipyards of foreign cities, Queequeg disdained no
seeming ignominy, if thereby he might happily gain the
power of enlightening his untutored countrymen. For at
bottom so he told me he was actuated by a profound
desire to learn among the Christians, the arts whereby
to make his people still happier than they were ; and more
than that, still better than they were. But, alas ! the
\ practices of whalemen soon convinced him that even
j Christians could be both miserable and wicked ; infinitely
more so, than all his father's heathens. Arrived at last
in old Sag Harbour ; and seeing what the sailors did
there ; and then going on to Nantucket, and seeing how
they spent their wages in that place also, poor Queequeg
gave it up for lost. Thought he, it 5 s a wicked world
in all meridians ; 1 11 die a pagan.
And thus an old idolater at heart, he yet lived among
these Christians, wore their clothes, and tried to talk their
gibberish. Hence the queer ways about him, though
now some time from home.
By hints, I asked him whether he did not propose going
back, and having a coronation ; since he might now
consider his father dead and gone, he being very old and
70 MOBY-DICK
feeble at the last accounts. He answered no, not yet ;
and added that he was fearful Christianity, or rather
Christians, had unfitted him for ascending the pure and
undefiled throne of thirty pagan kings before him. But
by and by, he said, he would return, as soon as he felt
himself baptized again. For the nonce, however, he
proposed to sail about, and sow his wild oats in all four
oceans. They had made a harpooneer of him, and that
barbed iron was in lieu of a sceptre now.
I asked him what might be his immediate purpose,
touching his future movements. He answered, to go to
sea again, in his old vocation. Upon this, I told him that
whaling was my own design, and informed him of my
intention to sail out of Nantucket, as being the most
promising port for an adventurous whaleman to embark
from. He at once resolved to accompany me to that
island, ship aboard the same vessel, get into the same
watch, the same boat, the same mess with me, in short
to share my every hap ; with both my hands in his, boldly
dip into the Potluck of both worlds. To all this I joy-
ously assented ; for besides the affection I now felt for
Queequeg, he was an experienced harpooneer, and as such,
could not fail to be of great usefulness to one who, like me,
was wholly ignorant of the mysteries of whaling, though
well acquainted with the sea as known to merchant
seamen.
His story being ended with his pipe's last dying puff,
Queequeg embraced me, pressed his forehead against
mine, and blowing out the light, we rolled over from each
other, this way and that, and very soon were sleeping.
CHAPTER XIII
WHEELBARROW
NEXT morning, Monday, after disposing of the embalmed
head to a barber, for a block, I settled my own and com-
rade's bill ; using, however, my comrade's money. The
grinning landlord, as well as the boarders, seemed amaz-
ingly tickled at the sudden friendship which had sprung
up between me and Queequeg especially as Peter Coffin's
cock-and-bull stories about him had previously so much
alarmed me concerning the very person whom I now
companied with.
We borrowed a wheelbarrow, and embarking our
things, including my own poor carpet-bag, and Quee-
queg 's canvas sack and hammock, away we went down to
the Moss, the little Nantucket packet schooner moored
at the wharf. As we were going along the people stared ;
not at Queequeg so much for they were used to seeing
cannibals like him in their streets, but at seeing him
and me upon such confidential terms. But we heeded
them not, going along wheeling the barrow by turns,
and Queequeg now and then stopping to adjust the sheath
on his harpoon barbs. I asked him why he carried such
a troublesome thing with him ashore, and whether all
whaling-ships did not find their own harpoons. To this,
in substance, he replied, that though what I hinted was
true enough, yet he had a particular affection for his own
harpoon, because it was of assured stuff, well tried in
many a mortal combat, and deeply intimate with the
hearts of whales. In short, like many inland reapers and
71
72 MOBY-DICK
mowers, who go into the farmer's meadows armed with
their own scythes though in no wise obliged to furnish
them even so, Queequeg, for his own private reasons,
preferred his own harpoon.
Shifting the barrow from my hand to his, he told me
a funny story about the first wheelbarrow he had ever
seen. It was in Sag Harbour. The owners of his ship,
it seems, had lent him one, in which to carry his heavy
chest to his boarding-house. Not to seem ignorant about
the thing though in truth he was entirely so, concerning
the precise way in which to manage the barrow Quee-
queg puts his chest upon it ; lashes it fast ; and then
shoulders the barrow and marches up the wharf. ' Why/
said I, ' Queequeg, you might have known better than
that, one would think. Didn't the people laugh ? '
Upon this, he told me another story. The people
of his island of Rokovoko, it seems, at their wedding
feasts express the fragrant water of young cocoa-nuts into
a large stained calabash like a punch -bowl ; and this
punch -bowl always forms the great central ornament on
the braided mat where the feast is held. Now a certain
grand merchant ship once touched at Rokovoko, and its
commander from all accounts a very stately punctilious
gentleman, at least for a sea-captain this commander
was invited to the wedding feast of Queequeg 's sister, a
pretty young princess just turned of ten. Well ; when all
the wedding guests were assembled at the bride's bamboo
cottage, this captain marches in, and being assigned the
post of honour, placed himself over against the punch-
bowl, and between the High Priest and his majesty the
King, Queequeg 's father. Grace being said, for those
people have their grace as well as we though Queequeg
told me that unlike us, who at such times look downward
to our platters, they, on the contrary, copying the ducks,
glance upward to the great Giver of all feasts Grace,
WHEELBARROW 73
I say, being said, the High Priest opens the banquet by
the immemorial ceremony of the island ; that is, dipping
his consecrated and consecrating fingers into the bowl
before the blessed - beverage circulates. Seeing himself
placed next the Priest, and noting the ceremony, and
thinking himself being captain of a ship as having
plain precedence over a mere island King, especially in
the King's own house the captain coolly proceeds to
wash his hands in the punch-bowl ; taking it, I suppose,
for a huge finger-glass. ' Now/ said Queequeg, ' what
you tink now ? Didn't our people laugh ? '
At last, passage paid, and luggage safe, we stood on
board the schooner. Hoisting sail, it glided down the
Acushnet river. On one side, New Bedford rose in
terraces of streets, their ice -covered trees all glittering
in the clear, cold air. Huge hills and mountains of casks
on casks were piled upon her wharves, and side by side
the world-wandering whale-ships lay silent and safely
moored at last ; while from others came a sound of
carpenters and coopers, with blended noises of fires and
forges to melt the pitch, all betokening that new cruises
were on the start ; that one most perilous and long
voyage ended, only begins a second ; and a second ended,
only begins a third, and so on, forever and for aye.
Such is the endlessness, yea, the intolerableness of all
earthly effort.
Gaining the more open water, the bracing breeze
waxed fresh ; the little Moss tossed the quick foam from
her bows, as a young colt his snortings. How I snuffed
that Tartar air ! how I spurned that turnpike earth !
that common highway all over dented with the marks
of slavish heels and hoofs ; and turned me to admire the
magnanimity of the sea which will permit no records.
At the same foam-fountain, Queequeg seemed to drink
and reel with me. His dusky nostrils swelled apart ; he
74 MOBY-DICK
showed his filed and pointed teeth. On, on we flew ; and
our offing gained, the Moss did homage to the blast ;
ducked and dived her brows as a slave before the Sultan.
Sideways leaning, we sideways darted ; every rope-yarn
tingling like a wire ; the two tall masts buckling like
Indian canes in land tornadoes. So full of this reeling
scene were we, as we stood by the plunging bowsprit,
that for some time we did not notice the jeering glances
of the passengers, a lubber-like assembly, who marvelled
that two fellow-beings should be so companionable ; as
though a white man were anything more dignified than
a whitewashed negro. But there were some boobies
and bumpkins there, who, by their intense greenness,
must have come from the heart and centre of all verdure.
Queequeg caught one of these young saplings mimicking
him behind his back. I thought the bumpkin's hour of
doom was come. Dropping his harpoon, the brawny
savage caught him in his arms, and by an almost miracu-
lous dexterity and strength, sent him high up bodily into
the air ; then slightly tapping his stern in mid-somerset,
the fellow landed with bursting lungs upon his feet, while
Queequeg, turning his back upon him, lighted his toma-
hawk-pipe and passed it to me for a puff.
' Capting ! capting ! ' yelled the bumpkin, running
toward that officer ; ' Capting, capting, here 's the
devil.'
' Halloa, you sir/ cried the captain, a gaunt rib of the
sea, stalking up to Queequeg, ' what in thunder do you
mean by that ? Don't you know you might have killed
that chap ? '
' What him say ? ' said Queequeg, as he mildly turned
to me.
' He say,' said I, ' that you came near kill-e that man
there,' pointing to the still shivering greenhorn.
' Kill-e/ cried Queequeg, twisting his tattooed face
WHEELBARROW 75
into an unearthly expression of disdain, ' ah ! him bevy
small-e fish-e ; Queequeg no-kill-e so small-e fish-e ;
Queequeg Idll-e big whale ! '
' Look you/ roared the captain, ' I '11 kill-e you, you
cannibal, if you try any more of your tricks aboard here ;
so mind your eye.'
But it so happened just then, that it was high time for
the captain to mind his own eye. The prodigious strain
upon the mainsail had parted the weather-sheet, and the
tremendous boom was now flying from side to side, com-
pletely sweeping the entire after part of the deck. The
poor fellow whom Queequeg had handled so roughly,
was swept overboard ; all hands were in a panic ; and to
attempt snatching at the boom to stay it, seemed madness.
It flew from right to left, and back again, almost in one
ticking of a watch, and every instant seemed on the point
of snapping into splinters. Nothing was done, and noth-
ing seemed capable of being done ; those on deck rushed
toward the bows, and stood eyeing the boom as if it were
the lower jaw of an exasperated whale. In the midst of
this consternation, Queequeg dropped deftly to his knees,
and crawling under the path of the boom, whipped hold
of a rope, secured one end to the bulwarks, and then
flinging the other like a lasso, caught it round the boom
as it swept over his head, and at the next jerk, the spar
was that way trapped, and all was safe. The schooner
was run into the wind, and while the hands were clearing
away the stern boat, Queequeg, stripped to the waist,
darted from the side with a long living arc of a leap. For
three minutes or more he was seen swimming like a dog,
throwing his long arms straight out before him, and by
turns revealing his brawny shoulders through the freezing
foam. I looked at the grand and glorious fellow, but saw
no one to be saved. The greenhorn had gone down.
Shooting himself perpendicularly from the water, Quee-
76 MOBY-DICK
queg now took an instant's glance around him, and seem-
ing to see just how matters were, dived down and dis-
appeared. A few minutes more, and he rose again, one
arm still striking out, and with the other dragging a life-
less form. The boat soon picked them up. The poor
bumpkin was restored. All hands voted Queequeg a
noble trump ; the captain begged his pardon. From
that hour I clove to Queequeg like a barnacle ; yea, till
poor Queequeg took his last long dive.
Was there ever such unconsciousness ? He did not
seem to think that he at all deserved a medal from the
Humane and Magnanimous Societies. He only asked for
water fresh water something to wipe the brine off ;
that done, he put on dry clothes, lighted his pipe, and
leaning against the bulwarks, and mildly eyeing those
around him, seemed to be saying to himself ' It 's a
mutual, joint-stock world, in all meridians. We canni-
bals must help these Christians. 5
CHAPTER XIV
NANTUCKET
NOTHING more happened on the passage worthy the
mentioning ; so, after a fine run, we safely arrived in
Nantucket.
Nantucket ! Take out your map and look at it.
See what a real corner of the world it occupies ; how it
stands there, away off shore, more lonely than the Eddy-
stone lighthouse. Look at it a mere hillock, and elbow
of sand ; all beach, without a background. There is
more sand there than you would use in twenty years as a
substitute for blotting-paper. Some gamesome wights
will tell you that they have to plant weeds there, they
don't grow naturally ; that they import Canada thistles ;
that they have to send beyond seas for a spile to stop a
leak in an oil-cask ; that pieces of wood in Nantucket
are carried about like bits of the true cross in Rome ;
that people there plant toadstools before their houses,
to get under the shade in summer time ; that one blade
of grass makes an oasis, three blades in a day's walk a
prairie ; that they wear quicksand shoes, something like
Laplander snow-shoes ; that they are so shut up, belted
about, every way enclosed, surrounded, and made an
utter island of by the ocean, that to their very chairs and
tables small clams will sometimes be found adhering, as
to the backs of sea-turtles. But these extravaganzas
only show that Nantucket is no Illinois.
Look now at the wondrous traditional story of how this
island was settled by the red men. Thus goes the legend.
77
78 MOBY-DICK
In olden times an eagle swooped down upon the New
England coast, and carried off an infant Indian in his
talons. With loud lament the parents saw their child
borne out of sight over the wide waters. They resolved
to follow in the same direction. Setting out in their
canoes, after a perilous passage they discovered the
island, and there they found an empty ivory casket,
the poor little Indian's skeleton.
What wonder, then, that these Nantucketers, born on
a beach, should take to the sea for a livelihood ! They
first caught crabs and quohogs in the sand ; grown
bolder, they waded out with nets for mackerel ; more
experienced, they pushed off in boats and captured cod ;
and at last, launching a navy of great ships on the sea,
explored this watery world ; put an incessant belt of cir-
cumnavigations round it ; peeped in at Behring Straits ;
and in all seasons and all oceans declared everlasting war
with the mightiest animated mass that has survived the
Flood ; most monstrous and most mountainous ! That
Himalayan, salt-sea mastodon, clothed with such por-
tentousness of unconscious power, that his very panics
are more to be dreaded than his most fearless and malicious
assaults !
And thus have these naked Nantucketers, these sea-
hermits, issuing from their ant-hill in the sea, overrun
and conquered the watery world like so many Alexanders ;
parcelling out among them the Atlantic, Pacific, and
Indian oceans, as the three pirate powers did Poland. Let
America add Mexico to Texas, and pile Cuba upon Canada ;
let the English over swarm all India, and hang out their
blazing banner from the sun; two-thirds of this terr-
aqueous globe are the Nantucketer's. For the sea is his ;
he owns it, as Emperors own empires ; other seamen
having but a right of way through it. Merchant ships
are but extension bridges ; armed ones but floating forts ;
NANTUCKET 79
even pirates and privateers, though following the sea as
highwaymen the road, they but plunder other ships, other
fragments of the land like themselves, without seeking to
draw their living from the bottomless deep itself. The
Nantucketer, he alone resides and riots on the sea ; he
alone, in Bible language, goes down to it in ships ; to and
fro ploughing it as his own special plantation. There is
his home ; there lies his business, which a Noah's flood
would not interrupt, though it overwhelmed all the
millions in China. He lives on the sea, as prairie cocks
in the prairie ; he hides among the waves, he climbs
them as chamois hunters climb the Alps. For years he
knows not the land ; so that when he comes to it at last,
it smells like another world, more strangely than the
moon would to an Earthsman. With the landless gull,
that at sunset folds her wings and is rocked to sleep
between billows ; so, at nightfall, the Nantucketer, out
of sight of land, furls his sails, and lays him to his rest,
while under his very pillow rush herds of walruses and
whales.
CHAPTER XV
CHOWDER
IT was quite late in the evening when the little Moss came
snugly to anchor, and Queequeg and I went ashore ; so
we could attend to no business that day, at least none
but a supper and a bed. The landlord of the Spouter-
Inn had recommended us to his cousin Hosea Hussey
of the Try Pots, whom he asserted to be the proprietor
of one of the best kept hotels in all Nantucket, and more-
over he had assured us that Cousin Hosea, as he called
him, was famous for his chowders. In short, he plainly
hinted that we could not possibly do better than try pot-
luck at the Try Pots. But the directions he had given
us about keeping a yellow warehouse on our starboard
hand till we opened a white church to the larboard, and
then keeping that on the larboard hand till we made a
corner three points to the starboard, and that done,
then ask the first man we met where the place was : these
crooked directions of his very much puzzled us at first,
especially as, at the outset, Queequeg insisted that the
yellow warehouse our first point of departure must be
left on the larboard hand, whereas I had understood
Peter Coffin to say it was on the starboard. However,
by dint of beating about a little in the dark, and now and
then knocking up a peaceable inhabitant to inquire the
way, we at last came to something which there was no
mistaking.
Two enormous wooden pots painted black, and sus-
pended by asses' ears, swung from the cross-trees of an
80
CHOWDER 81
old topmast, planted in front of an old doorway. The
horns of the cross-trees were sawed off on the other side,
so that this old topmast looked not a little like a gallows.
Perhaps I was over-sensitive to such impressions at the
time, but I could not help staring at this gallows with a
vague misgiving. A sort of crick was in my neck as I
gazed up to the two remaining horns ; yes, two of them,
one for Queequeg, and one for me. It 's ominous, thinks
I. A Coffin my Innkeeper upon landing in my first
whaling port ; tombstones staring at me in the whale-
man's chapel ; and here a gallows ! and a pair of pro-
digious black pots too ! Are these last throwing out
oblique hints touching Tophet ?
I was called from these reflections by the sight of a
freckled woman with yellow hair and a yellow gown,
standing in the porch of the inn, under a dull red lamp
swinging there, that looked much like an injured eye,
and carrying on a brisk scolding with a man in a purple
woollen shirt.
1 Get along with ye, 5 said she to the man, ' or I '11 be
combing ye ! '
4 Come on, Queequeg,' said I, 'all right. There's
Mrs. Hussey.'
And so it turned out ; Mr. Hosea Hussey being from
home, but leaving Mrs. Hussey entirely competent to
attend to all his affairs. Upon making known our de-
sires for a supper and a bed, Mrs. Hussey, postponing
further scolding for the present, ushered us into a little
room, and seating us at a table spread with the relics
of a recently concluded repast, turned round to us and
said, ' Clam or cod ? '
' What 's that about cods, ma'am ? ' said I, with much
politeness.
4 Clam or cod ? ' she repeated.
' A clam for supper ? a cold clam ; is that what you
VOL. I. F
82 MOBY-DICK
mean, Mrs. Hussey ? ' says I ; ' but that 's a rather cold
and clammy reception in the winter time, ain't it, Mrs.
Hussey ? '
But being in a great hurry to resume scolding the
man in the purple shirt, who was waiting for it in
the entry, and seeming to hear nothing but the word
' clam, 5 Mrs. Hussey hurried toward an open door
leading to the kitchen, and bawling out ' clam for two, '
disappeared.
' Queequeg,' said I, ' do you think that we can make out
a supper for us both on one clam ? '
However, a warm savoury steam from the kitchen
served to belie the apparently cheerless prospect before
us. But when that smoking chowder came in, the
mystery was delightfully explained. Oh, sweet friends !
hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams,
scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship-
biscuit, and salted pork cut up into little flakes ; the
whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with
pepper and salt. Our appetites being sharpened by the
frosty voyage, and in particular, Queequeg seeing his
favourite fishing food before him, and the chowder being
surpassingly excellent, we dispatched it with great
expedition : when leaning back a moment and bethink-
ing me of Mrs. Hussey's clam and cod announcement,
I thought I would try a little experiment. Stepping
to the kitchen door, I uttered the word ' cod ' with great
emphasis, and resumed my seat. In a few moments the
savoury steam came forth again, but with a different
flavour, and in good time a fine cod-chowder was placed
before us.
We resumed business ; and while plying our spoons
in the bowl, thinks I to myself, I wonder now if this here
has any effect on the head ? What 's that stultifying
saying about chowder-headed people ? ' But look,
CHOWDER 83
Queequeg, ain't that a live eel in your bowl ? Where 's
your harpoon ? '
Fishiest of all fishy places was the Try Pots; which well
deserved its name ; for the pots there were always boiling
chowders. Chowder for breakfast, and chowder for
dinner, and chowder for supper, till you began to look for
fish-bones coming through your clothes. The area before
the house was paved with clam-shells. Mrs. Hussey wore
a polished necklace of codfish vertebra ; and Hosea
Hussey had his account-books bound in superior old
shark-skin. There was a fishy flavour to the milk, too,
which I could not at all account for, till one morning
happening to take a stroll along the beach among some
fishermen's boats, I saw Hosea 's brindled cow feeding
on fish remnants, and marching along the sand with each
foot in a cod's decapitated head, looking very slipshod,
I assure ye.
Supper concluded, we received a lamp, and directions
from Mrs. Hussey concerning the nearest way to bed ;
but, as Queequeg was about to precede me up the stairs,
the lady reached forth her arm, and demanded his har-
poon ; she allowed no harpoon in her chambers. ' Why
not ? J said I ; ' every true whaleman sleeps with his
harpoon but why not ? ' ' Because it 's dangerous, 5
says she. ' Ever since young Stiggs coming from that
unfort'nt v'y'ge of his, when he was gone four years and
a half, with only three barrels of ile, was found dead in
my first floor back, with his harpoon in his side ; ever
since then I allow no boarders to take sich dangerous
weepons in their rooms at night. So, Mr. Queequeg '
(for she had learned his name), ' I will just take this
here iron, and keep it for you till morning. But the
chowder ; clam or cod to-morrow for breakfast, men ? '
' Both,' says I ; ' and let 's have a couple of smoked
herring by way of variety.'
CHAPTER XVI
THE SHIP
IN bed we concocted our plans for the morrow. But to
my surprise and no small concern, Queequeg now gave
me to understand, that he had been diligently consulting
Yojo the name of his black little god and Yojo had
told him two or three times over, and strongly insisted
upon it everyway, that instead of our going together
among the whaling-fleet in harbour, and in concert
selecting our craft ; instead of this, I say, Yojo earnestly
enjoined that the selection of the ship should rest wholly
with me, inasmuch as Yojo purposed befriending us ; and,
in order to do so, had already pitched upon a vessel, which,
if left to myself, I, Ishmael, should infallibly light upon,
for all the world as though it had turned out by chance ;
and in that vessel I must immediately ship myself, for
the present irrespective of Queequeg.
I have forgotten to mention that, in many things,
Queequeg placed great confidence in the excellence of
Yojo's judgment and surprising forecast of things ; and
cherished Yojo with considerable esteem, as a rather
good sort of god, who perhaps meant well enough upon
the whole, but in all cases did not succeed in his benevolent
designs.
Now, this plan of Queequeg's, or rather Yojo's, touch-
ing the selection of our craft ; I did not like that plan at
all. I had not a little relied upon Queequeg's sagacity
to point out the whaler best fitted to carry us and our
fortunes securely. But as all my remonstrances pro-
84
THE SHIP 85
duced no effect upon Queequeg, I was obliged to acquiesce;
and accordingly prepared to set about this business with
a determined rushing sort of energy and vigour, that
should quickly settle that trifling little affair. Next
morning early, leaving Queequeg shut up with Yojo in
our little bedroom for it seemed that it was some sort
of Lent or Ramadan, or day of fasting, humiliation, and
prayer with Queequeg and Yojo that day ; how it was
I never could find out, for, though I applied myself to
it several times, I never could master his liturgies and
XXXIX Articles leaving Queequeg, then, fasting on
his tomahawk-pipe, and Yojo warming himself at his
sacrificial fire of shavings, I sallied out among the shipping.
After much prolonged sauntering and many random
inquiries, I learnt that there were three ships up for
three-years' voyages the Devil-Dam, the Tit-bit, and
the Pequod. Devil-Dam, I do not know the origin of ;
Tit-bit is obvious ; Pequod, you will no doubt remember,
was the name of a celebrated tribe of Massachusetts
Indians, now extinct as the ancient Medes. I peered and
pryed about the Devil-Dam ; from her, hopped over to
the Tit-bit ; and, finally, going on board the Pequod,
looked around her for a moment, and then decided that
this was the very ship for us.
You may have seen many a quaint craft in your day,
for aught I know ; square-toed luggers ; mountainous
Japanese junks ; butter-box galliots, and what not ; but
take my word for it, you never saw such a rare old craft
as this same rare old Pequod. She was a ship of the old
school, rather small if anything ; with an old-fashioned
claw-footed look about her. Long seasoned and weather-
stained in the typhoons and calms of all four oceans, her
old hull's complexion was darkened like a French grena-
dier's, who has alike fought in Egypt and Siberia. Her
venerable bows looked bearded. Her masts cut some-
86 MOBY-DICK
where on the coast of Japan, where her original ones were
lost overboard in a gale her masts stood stiffly up like
the spines of the three old kings of Cologne. Her ancient
decks were worn and wrinkled, like the pilgrim-worshipped
flag-stone in Canterbury Cathedral where Becket bled.
But to all these her old antiquities were added new and
marvellous features, pertaining to the wild business that
for more than half a century she had followed. Old
Captain Peleg, many years her chief mate, before he com-
manded another vessel of his own, and now a retired
seaman, and one of the principal owners of the Pequod,
this old Peleg, during the term of his chief mateship, had
built upon her original grotesqueness, and inlaid it, all
over, with a quaintness both of material and device, un-
matched by anything except it be Thorkill-Hake's carved
buckler or bedstead. She was apparelled like any bar-
baric Ethiopian emperor, his neck heavy with pendants
of polished ivory. She was a thing of trophies. A canni-
bal of a craft, tricking herself forth in the chased bones
of her enemies. All round, her unpanelled, open bul-
warks were garnished like one continuous jaw, with the
long sharp teeth of the sperm whale, inserted there for
pins, to fasten her old hempen thews and tendons to.
Those thews ran not through base blocks of land-wood,
but deftly travelled over sheaves of sea -ivory. Scorning
a turnstile wheel at her reverend helm, she sported there
a tiller ; and that tiller was in one mass, curiously carved
from the long narrow lower jaw of her hereditary foe.
The helmsman who steered by that tiller in a tempest,
felt like the Tartar, when he holds back his fiery steed
by clutching its jaw. A noble craft, but somehow a most
melancholy ! All noble things are touched with that.
Now when I looked about the quarter-deck, for some
one having authority, in order to propose myself as a
candidate for the voyage, at first I saw nobody ; but I
THE SHIP 87
could not well overlook a strange sort of tent, or rather
wigwam, pitched a little behind the mainmast. It
seemed only a temporary erection used in port. It was
of a conical shape, some ten feet high ; consisting of the
long, huge slabs of limber black bone taken from the
middle and highest part of the jaws of the right whale.
Planted with their broad ends on the deck, a circle of these
slabs laced together, mutually sloped toward each other,
and at the apex united in a tufted point, where the loose
hairy fibres waved to and fro like the top-knot on some
old Pottowottamie sachem's head. A triangular opening
faced toward the bows of the ship, so that the insider
commanded a complete view forward.
And half concealed in this queer tenement, I at length
found one who by his aspect seemed to have authority ;
and who, it being noon, and the ship's work suspended,
was now enjoying respite from the burden of command.
He was seated on an old-fashioned oaken chair, wriggling
all over with curious carving ; and the bottom of which
was formed of a stout interlacing of the same elastic stuff
of which the wigwam was constructed.
There was nothing so very particular, perhaps, about
the appearance of the elderly man I saw ; he was brown
and brawny, like most old seamen, and heavily rolled up
in blue pilot-cloth, cut in the Quaker style ; only there
was a fine and almost microscopic network of the minutest
wrinkles interlacing round his eyes, which must have
arisen from his continual sailings in many hard gales, and
always looking to windward ; for this causes the muscles
about the eyes to become pursed together. Such eye-
wrinkles are very effectual in a scowl.
' Is this the captain of the Pequod ? ' said I, advancing
to the door of the tent.
' Supposing it be the captain of the Pequod, what
dost thou want of him ? ' he demanded.
88 MOBY-DICK
' I was thinking of shipping.'
' Thou wast, wast thou ? I see thou art no Nan-
tucketer ever been in a stove boat ? '
' No, sir, I never have.'
' Dost know nothing at all about whaling, I dare say
eh? '
' Nothing, sir ; but I have no doubt I shall soon learn.
I 've been several voyages in the merchant service, and
I think that
' Marchant service be damned. Talk not that lingo
to me. Dost see that leg ? I '11 take that leg away from
thy stern, if ever thou talkest of the marchant service to
me again. Marchant service indeed ! I suppose now
ye feel considerable proud of having served in those
marchant ships. But flukes ! man, what makes thee
want to go a-whaling, eh ? it looks a little suspicious,
don't it, eh ? Hast not been a pirate, hast thou ?
Didst not rob thy last captain, didst thou ? Dost not
think of murdering the officers when thou gettest to sea ? '
I protested my innocence of these things. I saw that
under the mask of these half-humorous innuendoes, this
old seaman, as an insulated Quakerish Nantucketer, was
full of his insular prejudices, and rather distrustful of all
aliens, unless they hailed from Cape Cod or the Vineyard.
' But what takes thee a-whaling ? I want to know that
before I think of shipping ye.'
4 Well, sir, I want to see what whaling is. I want to
see the world/
' Want to see what whaling is, eh ? Have ye clapped
eye on Captain Ahab ? '
' Who is Captain Ahab, sir ? '
4 Ay, ay, I thought so. Captain Ahab is the captain
of this ship.'
' I am mistaken then. I thought I was speaking to
the captain himself.'
THE SHIP 89
' Thou art speaking to Captain Peleg that 's who ye
are speaking to, young man. It belongs to me and
Captain Bildad to see the Pequod fitted out for the voyage,
and supplied with all her needs, including crew. We are
part owners and agents. But as I was going to say, if
thou wantest to know what whaling is, as thou tellest ye
do, I can put ye in a way of finding it out before ye bind
yourself to it, past backing out. Clap eye on Captain
Ahab, young man, and thou wilt finxl that he has only
one leg.'
' What do you mean, sir ? Was the other one lost by
a whale ? '
' Lost by a whale ! Young man, come nearer to me :
it was devoured, chewed up, crunched by the mon-
strousest parmacetty that ever chipped a boat ! ah, ah ! '
I was a little alarmed by his energy, perhaps also a little
touched at the hearty grief in his concluding exclamation,
but said as calmly as I could, ' What you say is no doubt
true enough, sir ; but how could I know there was any
peculiar ferocity in that particular whale, though indeed
I might have inferred as much from the simple fact of
the accident.'
' Look ye now, young man, thy lungs are a sort of soft,
d' ye see ; thou dost not talk shark a bit. Sure, ye 've
been to sea before now ; sure of that ? '
' Sir,' said I, ' I thought I told you that I had been four
voyages in the merchant '
' Hard down out of that ! Mind what I said about the
marchant service don't aggravate me I won't have it.
But let us understand each other. I have given thee a
hint about what whaling is ; do ye yet feel inclined for it ? '
4 1 do, sir.'
' Very good. Now, art thou the man to pitch a
harpoon down a live whale's throat, and then jump
after it ? Answer, quick ! '
90 MOBY-DICK
' I am, sir, if it should be positively indispensable to
do so ; not to be got rid of, that is ; which I don't take
to be the fact.'
6 Good again. Now then, thou not only wantest to go
a -whaling, to find out by experience what whaling is,
but ye also want to go in order to see the world ? Was
not that what ye said ? I thought so. Well then, just
step forward there, and take a peep over the weather-bow,
and then back to me and tell me what ye see there.'
For a moment I stood a little puzzled by this curious
request, not knowing exactly how to take it, whether
humorously or in earnest. But concentrating all his
crow's feet into one scowl, Captain Peleg started me on
the errand.
Going forward and glancing over the weather -bow, I
perceived that the ship, swinging to her anchor with the
flood-tide, was now obliquely pointing toward the open
ocean. The prospect was unlimited, but exceedingly
monotonous and forbidding ; not the slightest variety
that I could see.
' Well, what 's the report ? ' said Peleg when I came
back ; ' what did ye see ? '
1 Not much,' I replied 'nothing but water ; considerable
horizon though, and there 's a squall coming up, I think.'
' Well, what dost thou think then of seeing the world ?
Do ye wish to go round Cape Horn to see any more of it,
I eh ? Can't ye see the world where you stand ? '
I was a little staggered, but go a-whaling I must, and
I would ; and the Pequod was as good a ship as any I
(thought the best and all this I now repeated to Peleg.
Seeing me so determined, he expressed his willingness to
ship me.
' And thou mayest as well sign the papers right off, ' he
added ' come along with ye.' And so saying, he led
the way below deck into the cabin.
THE SHIP 91
Seated on the transom was what seemed to me a most
uncommon and surprising figure. It turned out to be
Captain Bildad, who along with Captain Peleg was one
of the largest owners of the vessel ; the other shares, as
is sometimes the case in these ports, being held by a
crowd of old annuitants ; widows, fatherless children,
and chancery wards ; each owning about the value of a
timber head, or a foot of plank, or a nail or two in the ship.
People in Nantucket invest their money in whaling-
vessels, the same way that you do yours in approved
state stocks bringing in good interest.
Now Bildad, like Peleg, and indeed many other Nan-
tucketers, was a Quaker, the island having been originally
settled by that sect ; and to this day its inhabitants in
general retain in an uncommon measure the peculiarities
of the Quaker, only variously and anomalously modified
by things altogether alien and heterogeneous. For some
of these same Quakers are the most sanguinary of all
sailors and whale -hunters. They are fighting Quakers ;
they are Quakers with a vengeance.
So that there are instances among them of men, who,
named with Scripture names a singularly common
fashion on the island and in childhood naturally imbib-
ing the stately dramatic thee and thou of the Quaker
idiom ; still, from the audacious, daring, and boundless
adventure of their subsequent lives, strangely blend with
these unoutgrown peculiarities a thousand bold dashes
of character, not unworthy a Scandinavian sea-king, or a
poetical pagan Roman. And when these things unite
in a man of greatly superior natural force, with a globular
brain and a ponderous heart ; who has also by the still-
ness and seclusion of many long night-watches in the
remotest waters, and beneath constellations never seen
here at the north, been led to think untraditionally and
independently ; receiving all nature's sweet or savage
92 MOBY-DICK
impressions fresh from her own virgin voluntary and
confiding breast, and thereby chiefly, but with some help
from accidental advantages, to learn a bold and nervous
lofty language that man makes one in a whole nation's
census a mighty pageant creature, formed for noble
tragedies. Nor will it at all detract from him, dramatic-
ally regarded, if either by birth or other circumstances, he
have what seems a half- wilful over-ruling morbidness at
the bottom of his nature. For all men tragically great
are made so through a certain morbidness. Be sure of
this, young ambition, all mortal greatness is but disease.
But, as yet we have not to do with such an one, but with
quite another ; and still a man, who, if indeed peculiar,
it only results again from another phase of the Quaker,
modified by individual circumstances.
Like Captain Peleg, Captain Bildad was a well-to-do,
retired whaleman. But unlike Captain Peleg who
cared not a rush for what are called serious things, and
indeed deemed those self-same serious things the veriest
of all trifles Captain Bildad had not only been originally
educated according to the strictest sect of Nantucket
Quakerism, but all his subsequent ocean life ; and the sight
of many unclad, lovely island creatures, round the Horn
all that had not moved this native-born Quaker one
single jot, had not so much as altered one angle of his vest.
Still, for all this immutableness, was there some lack of
common consistency about worthy Captain Bildad.
Though refusing, from conscientious scruples, to bear
arms against land invaders, yet himself had illimitably
invaded the Atlantic and Pacific ; and though a sworn
foe to human bloodshed, yet had he in his straight -bodied
coat, spilled tuns upon tuns of leviathan gore. How
now in the contemplative evening of his days, the pious
Bildad reconciled these things in the reminiscence, I do
not know ; but it did not seem to concern him much,
THE SHIP 93
and very probably he had long since come to the sage and
sensible conclusion that a Oman's religion is one thing,
and this practical world quite another. This world pays
dividends. Rising from a little cabin-boy in short clothes
of the drabbest drab, to a harpooneer in a broad shad-
bellied waistcoat ; from that becoming boat-header,
chief mate, and captain, and finally a shipowner ; Bildad,
as I hinted before, had concluded his adventurous career
by wholly retiring from active life at the goodly age of
sixty, and dedicating his remaining days to the quiet
receiving of his well-earned income.
Now Bildad, I am sorry to say, had the reputation of
being an incorrigible old hunks, and in his sea -going days,
a bitter, hard taskmaster. They told me in Nantucket,
though it certainly seems a curious story, that when he
sailed the old Categut whaleman, his crew, upon arriving
home, were mostly all carried ashore to the hospital,
sore exhausted and worn out. For a pious man, especi- v
ally for a Quaker, he was certainly rather hard-hearted, to \
say the least. He never used to swear, though, at his
men, they said ; but somehow he got an inordinate
quantity of cruel, unmitigated hard work out of them.
When Bildad was a chief mate, to have his drab-coloured
eye intently looking at you, made you feel completely
nervous, till you could clutch something a hammer or a
marling-spike and go to work like mad, at something or
other, never mind what. Indolence and idleness perished
from before him. His own person was the exact embodi-
ment of his utilitarian character. On his long, gaunt
body he carried no spare flesh, no superfluous beard,
his chin having a soft, economical nap to it, like the worn
nap of his broad-brimmed hat.
Such, then, was the person that I saw seated on the
transom when I followed Captain Peleg down into the
cabin. The space between the decks was small ; and
94 MOBY-DICK
there, bolt-upright, sat old Bildad, who always sat so,
and never leaned, and this to save his coat-tails. His
broad-brim was placed beside him ; his legs were stiffly
crossed ; his drab vesture was buttoned up to his chin ;
and spectacles on nose, he seemed absorbed in reading
from a ponderous volume.
' Bildad,' cried Captain Peleg, ' at it again, Bildad, eh ?
Ye have been studying those Scriptures, now, for the last
thirty years, to my certain knowledge. How far ye got,
Bildad ? '
As if long habituated to such profane talk from his old
shipmate, Bildad, without noticing his present irreverence,
quietly looked up, and seeing me, glanced again inquiringly
toward Peleg.
4 He says he 's our man, Bildad/ said Peleg, ' he wants
to ship. 5
' Dost thee ? ' said Bildad, in a hollow tone, and turning
round to me.
' I dost/ said I unconsciously, he was so intense a
Quaker.
' What do ye think of him, Bildad ? ' said Peleg.
' He '11 do,' said Bildad, eyeing me, and then went on
spelling away at his book in a mumbling tone quite
audible.
I thought him the queerest old Quaker I ever saw,
especially as Peleg, his friend and old shipmate, seemed
such a blusterer. But I said nothing, only looking round
me sharply. Peleg now threw open a chest, and drawing
forth the ship's articles, placed pen and ink before him,
and seated himself at a little table. I began to think
it was high time to settle with myself at what terms I
would be willing to engage for the voyage. I was already
aware that in the whaling business they paid no wages ;
but all hands, including the captain, received certain
shares of the profits called lays, and that these lays were
THE SHIP 95
proportioned to the degree of importance pertaining to
the respective duties of the ship's company. I was also
aware that being a green-hand at whaling, my own lay
would not be very large ; but considering that I was used
to the sea, could steer a ship, splice a rope, and all that,
I made no doubt that from all I had heard I should be
offered at least the 275th lay that is, the 275th part of
the clear nett proceeds of the voyage, whatever that
might eventually amount to. And though the 275th
lay was what they call a rather long lay, yet it was better
than nothing ; and if we had a lucky voyage, might
pretty nearly pay for the clothing I would wear out on it,
not to speak of my three years' beef and board, for which
I would not have to pay one stiver.
It might be thought that this was a poor way to
accumulate a princely fortune and so it was, a very poor
way indeed. But I am one of those that never take on
about princely fortunes, and am quite content if the world
is ready to board and lodge me, while I am putting up at
this grim sign of the Thunder Cloud. Upon the whole, I
thought that the 275th lay would be about the fair thing,
but would not have been surprised had I been offered
the 200th, considering I was of a broad-shouldered make.
But one thing, nevertheless, that made me a little
distrustful about receiving a generous share of the profits
was this : Ashore, I had heard something of both Captain
Peleg and his unaccountable old crony Bildad ; how that
they being the principal proprietors of the Pequod, there-
fore the other and more inconsiderable and scattered
owners, left nearly the whole management of the ship's
affairs to these two. And I did not know but what the
stingy old Bildad might have a mighty deal to say about
shipping hands, especially as I now found him on board
the Pequod, quite at home there in the cabin, and reading
his Bible as if at his own fireside. Now while Peleg was
96 MOBY-DICK
vainly trying to mend a pen with his jack-knife, old Bildad,
to my no small surprise, considering that he was such an
interested party in these proceedings ; Bildad never
heeded us, but went on mumbling to himself out of his
book, ' Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth,
where moth '
' Well, Captain Bildad,' interrupted Peleg, ' what d' ye
say, what lay shall we give this young man ? '
' Thou knowest best,' was the sepulchral reply, ' the
seven hundred and seventy-seventh wouldn't be too
much, would it ? " where moth and rust do corrupt,
but lay " '
Lay, indeed, thought I, and such a lay ! the seven
hundred and seventy-seventh ! Well, old Bildad, you
are determined that I, for one, shall not lay up many lays
here below, where moth and rust do corrupt. It was an
exceedingly long lay that, indeed ; and though from the
magnitude of the figure it might at first deceive a lands-
man, yet the slightest consideration will show that though
seven hundred and seventy -seven is a pretty large num-
ber, yet, when you come to make a teenth of it, you will
then see, I say, that the seven hundred and seventy-
seventh part of a farthing is a good deal less than seven
hundred and seventy -seven gold doubloons ; and so I
thought at the time.
4 Why, blast your eyes, Bildad,' cried Peleg, ' thou dost
not want to swindle this young man ! he must have more
than that.'
' Seven hundred and seventy -seventh,' again said
Bildad, without lifting his eyes ; and then went on
mumbling ' for where your treasure is, there will your
heart be also.'
' I am going to put him down for the three hundredth,'
said Peleg, ' do ye hear that, Bildad ? The three hundredth
lay, I say.'
THE SHIP 97
Bildad laid down his book, and turning solemnly to-
ward him said, ' Captain Peleg, thou hast a generous
heart ; but thou must consider the duty thou owest to
the other owners of this ship widows and orphans; many
of them and that if we too abundantly reward the
labours of this young man, we may be taking the bread
from those widows and those orphans. The seven
hundred and seventy -seventh lay, Captain Peleg.'
' Thou Bildad ! ' roared Peleg, starting up and clattering
about the cabin. ' Blast ye, Captain Bildad, if I had
followed thy advice in these matters, I would afore now
had a conscience to lug about that would be heavy
enough to founder the largest ship that ever sailed round
Cape Horn.'
4 Captain Peleg,' said Bildad steadily, ' thy conscience
may be drawing ten inches of water, or ten fathoms, I
can't tell ; but as thou art still an impenitent man,
Captain Peleg, I greatly fear lest thy conscience be but
a leaky one ; and will in the end sink thee foundering
down to the fiery pit, Captain Peleg.'
' Fiery pit ! fiery pit ! ye insult me, man ; past all
natural bearing, ye insult me. It 's an all-fired outrage
to tell any human creature that he 's bound to hell.
Flukes and flames ! Bildad, say that again to me, and
start my soul-bolts, but I '11 I '11 yes, I '11 swallow a
live goat with all his hair and horns on. Out of the cabin,
ye canting, drab-coloured son of a wooden gun & straight
wake with ye ! '
As he thundered out this he made a rush at Bildad, but
with a marvellous oblique, sliding celerity, Bildad for
that time eluded him.
Alarmed at this terrible outburst between the two
principal and responsible owners of the ship, and feeling
half a mind to give up all idea of sailing in a vessel so
questionably owned and temporarily commanded, I
VOL. i. G
98 MOBY-DICK
stepped aside from the door to give egress to Bildad, who,
I made no doubt, was all eagerness to vanish from before
the awakened wrath of Peleg. But to my astonishment,
he sat down again on the transom very quietly, and seemed
to have not the slightest intention of withdrawing. He
seemed quite used to impenitent Peleg and his ways. As
for Peleg, after letting off his rage as he had, there seemed
no more left in him, and he, too, sat down like a lamb,
though he twitched a little as if still nervously agitated.
' Whew ! ' he whistled at last ' the squall 's gone off to
leeward, I think. Bildad, thou used to be good at
sharpening a lance, mend that pen, will ye. My jack-
knife here needs the grindstone. That 's he ; thank ye,
Bildad. Now then, my young man, Ishmael 's thy name,
didn't ye say ? Well then, down ye go here, Ishmael,
for the three hundredth lay.'
' Captain Peleg,' said I, ' I have a friend with me who
wants to ship too shall I bring him down to-morrow ? '
' To be sure,' said Peleg. ' Fetch him along, and we '11
look at him.'
' What lay does he want ? ' groaned Bildad, glancing
up from the book in which he had again been burying
himself.
* Oh ! never thee mind about that, Bildad,' said Peleg.
' Has he ever whaled it any ? ' turning to me.
' Killed more whales than I can count, Captain Peleg.'
' Well, bring him along then.'
And, after signing the papers, off I went ; nothing
doubting but that I had done a good morning's work,
and that the Pequod was the identical ship that Yojo
had provided to carry Queequeg and me round the Cape.
But I had not proceeded far, when I began to bethink
me that the captain with whom I was to sail yet remained
unseen by me ; though, indeed, in many cases, a whale-
ship will be completely fitted out, and receive all her crew
THE SHIP 99
on board, ere the captain makes himself visible by arriv-
ing to take command ; for sometimes these voyages are
so prolonged, and the shore intervals at home so exceed-
ingly brief, that if the captain have a family, or any
absorbing concernment of that sort, he does not trouble
himself much about his ship in port, but leaves her to
the owners till all is ready for sea. However, it is always
as well to have a look at him before irrevocably commit-
ting yourself into his hands. Turning back I accosted
Captain Peleg, inquiring where Captain Ahab was to be
found.
* And what dost thou want of Captain Ahab ? It 's
all right enough ; thou art shipped.'
' Yes, but I should like to see him. 3
' But I don't think thou wilt be able to at present. I
don't know exactly what 's the matter with him ; but
he keeps close inside the house ; a sort of sick, and yet he
don't look so. In fact, he ain't sick ; but no, he isn't well
either. Anyhow, young man, he won't always see me,
so I don't suppose he will thee. He 's a queer man,
Captain Ahab so some think but a good one. Oh,
thou 'It like him well enough ; no fear, no fear. He 's a
grand, ungodly, god-like man, Captain Ahab ; doesn't
speak much ; but, when he does speak, then you may well
listen. Mark ye, be forewarned ; Ahab 's above the
common ; Ahab 's been in colleges, as well as 'mong the
cannibals ; been used to deeper wonders than the waves ;
fixed his fiery lance hi mightier, stranger foes than whales.
His lance ! ay, the keenest and the surest that out of
all our isle ! Oh ! he ain't Captain Bildad ; no, and he
ain't Captain Peleg ; he 's Ahab, boy ; and Ahab of old,
thou knowest, was a crowned king ! '
' And a very vile one. When that wicked king was
slain, the dogs, did they not lick his blood ? '
1 Come hither to me hither, hither,' said Peleg, with
100 MOBY-DICK
a significance in his eye that almost startled me. ' Look
ye, lad ; never say that on board the Pequod. Never say
it anywhere. Captain Ahab did not name himself.
'Twas a foolish, ignorant whim of his crazy, widowed
mother, who died when he was only a twelvemonth old.
And yet the old squaw Tistig, at Gay Head, said that the
name would somehow prove prophetic. And, perhaps,
other fools like her may tell thee the same. I wish to
warn thee. It 's a lie. I know Captain Ahab well ; I 've
sailed with him as mate years ago ; I know what he is a
good man not a pious, good man, like Bildad, but a
swearing good man something like me only there 's a
good deal more of him. Ay, ay, I know that he was
never very jolly ; and I know that on the passage home,
he was a little out of his mind for a spell ; but it was the
sharp shooting pains in his bleeding stump that brought
that about, as anyone might see. I know, too, that ever
since he lost his leg last voyage by that accursed whale,
he ? s been a kind of moody desperate moody, and savage
sometimes ; but that will all pass off. And once for all,
let me tell thee and assure thee, young man, it 's better
to sail with a moody good captain than a laughing bad
one. So good-bye to thee and wrong not Captain
Ahab, because he happens to have a wicked name. Be-
sides, my boy, he has a wife not three voyages wedded
a_ sweet, resigned girl. Think of that ; by that sweet
girl that old man has a child : hold ye then there can be
any utter, hopeless harm in Ahab ? No, no, my lad ;
stricken, blasted, if he be, Ahab has his humanities ! '
As I walked away, I was full of thoughtfuhiess ; what
had been incidentally revealed to me of Captain Ahab,
filled me with a certain wild vagueness of painfulness
concerning him. And somehow, at the time, I felt a
sympathy and a sorrow for him, but for I don't know
what, ^unless it was the cruel loss of his leg. And yet I
THE SHIP 101
also felt a strange awe of him ; but that sort of awe,
which I cannot at all describe, was not exactly awe ; I
do not know what it was. But I felt it ; and it did not
disincline me toward him ; though I felt impatience
at what seemed like mystery in him, so imperfectly as
he was known to me then. However, my thoughts were
at length carried in other directions, so that for the present
dark Ahab slipped my mind.
CHAPTER XVII
THE RAMADAN
As Queequeg 's Ramadan, or Fasting and Humiliation,
was to continue all day, I did not choose to disturb him
till toward night -fall ; for I cherish the greatest respect
toward everybody's religious obligations, never mind
how comical, and could not find it in my heart to under-
value even a congregation of ants worshipping a toad-
stool ; or those other creatures in certain parts of our
earth, who with a degree of footmanism quite unpre-
cedented in other planets, bow down before the torso
of a deceased landed proprietor merely on account of
the inordinate possessions yet owned and rented in his
name.
I say, we good Presbyterian Christians should be
charitable in these things, and not fancy ourselves so
vastly superior to other mortals, pagans and what not,
because of their half -crazy conceits on these subjects.
There was Queequeg, now, certainly entertaining the most
absurd notions about Yojo and his Ramadan ; but what
of that ? Queequeg thought he knew what he was about,
I suppose ; he seemed to be content ; and there let him
rest. All our arguing with him would not avail ; let him
be, I say : and Heaven have mercy on us all Presby-
terians and pagans alike for we are all somehow dread-
fully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending.
Toward evening, when I felt assured that all his
performances and rituals must be over, I went up to his
room and knocked at the door ; but no answer. I tried
102
i
THE RAMADAN 103
to open it, but it was fastened inside. ' Queequeg,' said I
softly through the keyhole : all silent. ' I say, Quee-
queg ! why don't you speak ? It 's I Ishmael.' But
all remained still as before. I began to grow alarmed. I
had allowed him such abundant time ; I thought he might
have had an apoplectic fit. I looked through the key-
hole ; but the door opening into an odd corner of the
room, the keyhole prospect was but a crooked and sinister
one. I could only see part of the foot-board of the bed
and a line of the wall, but nothing more. I was surprised
to behold resting against the wall the wooden shaft of Quee-
queg 's harpoon, which the landlady the evening previous
had taken from him, before our mounting to the chamber.
That 's strange, thought I ; but at any rate, since the
harpoon stands yonder, and he seldom or never goes
abroad without it, therefore he must be inside here, and
no possible mistake.
' Queequeg ! Queequeg ! ' all still. Something must
have happened. Apoplexy ! I tried to burst open the
door ; but it stubbornly resisted. Running downstairs,
I quickly stated my suspicions to the first person I met
the chambermaid. ' La ! la ! ' she cried, ' I thought
something must be the matter. I went to make the bed
after breakfast, and the door was locked ; and not a
mouse to be heard ; and it 's been just so silent ever since.
But I thought, maybe, you had both gone off and locked
your baggage in for safe keeping. La ! la, ma'am !
Mistress ! murder ! Mrs. Hussey ! apoplexy ! ' and
with these cries, she ran toward the kitchen, I following.
Mrs. Hussey soon appeared, with a mustard-pot in one
hand and a vinegar-cruet in the other, having just broken
away from the occupation of attending to the castors,
and scolding her little black boy meantime.
' Wood-house ! ' cried I, ' which way to it ? Run, for
God's sake, and fetch something to pry open the door
104 MOBY-DICK
the axe ! the axe ! he 's had a stroke ; depend upon
it ! ' and so saying I was unmethodically rushing up-
stairs again empty-handed, when Mrs. Hussey interposed
the mustard-pot and vinegar-cruet, and the entire castor
of her countenance.
' What J s the matter with you, young man ? '
' Get the axe ! For God's sake, run for the doctor,
someone, while I pry it open ! '
' Look here/ said the landlady, quickly putting down
the vinegar-cruet, so as to have one hand free ; ' look
here ; are you talking about prying open any of my
doors ? ' and with that she seized my arm. ' What 's
the matter with you ? What 's the matter with you,
shipmate ? '
In as calm, but rapid a manner as possible, I gave her
to understand the whole case. Unconsciously clapping
the vinegar-cruet to one side of her nose, she ruminated
for an instant ; then exclaimed 4 No ! I haven't seen it
since I put it there.' Running to a little closet under the
landing of the stairs, she glanced in, and returning, told
me that Queequeg's harpoon was missing. ' He 's killed
himself,' she cried. ' It 's unfort'nate Stiggs done over
again there goes another counterpane God pity his
poor mother ! it will be the ruin of my house. Has
the poor lad a sister ? Where 's that girl ? there, Betty,
go to Snarles the Painter, and tell him to paint me a sign,
with " no suicides permitted here, and no smoking in
the parlour " ; might as well kill both birds at once.
Kill ? The Lord be merciful to his ghost ! What 's
that noise there ? You, young man, avast there ! '
And running after me, she caught me as I was again
trying to force open the door.
' I won't allow it ; I won't have my premises spoiled.
Go for the locksmith, there 's one about a mile from here.
But avast ! ' putting her hand in her side-pocket, ' here 's
THE RAMADAN 105
a key that '11 fit, I guess ; let 's see.' And with that, she
turned it in the lock ; but, alas ! Queequeg 's supple-
mental bolt remained unwithdrawn within.
6 Have to burst it open,' said I, and was running down
the entry a little, for a good start, when the landlady
caught at me, again vowing I should not break down her
premises ; but I tore from her, and with a sudden bodily
rush dashed myself full against the mark.
With a prodigious noise the door flew open, and the
knob slamming against the wall, sent the plaster to the
ceiling ; and there, good heavens ! there sat Queequeg,
altogether cool and self-collected ; right in the middle
of the room ; squatting on his hams, and holding Yojo
on top of his head. He looked neither one way nor the
other way, but sat like a carved image with scarce a sign
of active life.
' Queequeg/ said I, going up to him, ' Queequeg, what 's
the matter with you ? '
' He hain't been a-sittin* so all day, has he ? ' said the
landlady.
But all we said, not a word could we drag out of him ;
I almost felt like pushing him over, so as to change his
position, for it was almost intolerable, it seemed so pain-
fully and unnaturally constrained ; especially, as in all
probability he had been sitting so for upward of eight or
ten hours, going too without his regular meals.
'Mrs. Hussey,' said I, 'he's alive, at all events; so
leave us, if you please, and I will see to this strange affair
myself.'
Closing the door upon the landlady, I endeavoured to
>revail upon Queequeg to take a chair ; but in vain.
There he sat ; and all he could do for all my polite
arts and blandishments he would not move a peg, nor
say a single word, nor even look at me, nor notice my
presence in any the slightest way.
106 MOBY-DICK
I wonder, thought I, if this can possibly be a part of his
Ramadan ; do they fast on their hams that way in his
native island ? It must be so ; yes, it 's part of his
creed, I suppose ; well, then, let him rest ; he '11 get up
sooner or later, no doubt. It can't last for ever, thank
God, and his Ramadan only comes once a year ; and I
don't believe it 's very punctual then.
I went down to supper. After sitting a long time
listening to the long stories of some sailors who had just
come from a plum-pudding voyage, as they called it (that
is, a short whaling voyage in a schooner or brig, confined
to the north of the Line, in the Atlantic Ocean only) ; after
listening to these plum-puddingers till nearly eleven
o'clock, I went upstairs to go to bed, feeling quite sure
by this time Queequeg must certainly have brought his
Ramadan to a termination. But no ; there he was just
where I had left him ; he had not stirred an inch. I began
to grow vexed with him ; it seemed so downright sense-
less and insane to be sitting there all day and half the
night on his hams in a cold room, holding a piece of wood
on his head.
' For heaven's sake, Queequeg, get up and shake your-
self ; get up and have some supper. You 11 starve ;
you '11 kill yourself, Queequeg.' But not a word did he
reply.
Despairing of him, therefore, I deter mined to go to bed
and to sleep ; and no doubt, before a great while, he
would follow me. But previous to turning in, I took my
heavy bearskin jacket, and threw it over him, as it
promised to be a very cold night ; and he had nothing
but his ordinary round jacket on. For some time, do
all I would, I could not get into the faintest doze. I had
blown out the candle ; and the mere thought of Queequeg
not four feet off sitting there in that uneasy position,
stark alone in the cold and dark ; this made me really
THE RAMADAN 107
wretched. Think of it ; sleeping all night in the same
room with a wide-awake pagan on his hams in this dreary,
unaccountable Ramadan !
But somehow I dropped off at last, and knew nothing
more till break of day ; when, looking over the bedside,
there squatted Queequeg, as if he had been screwed down
to the floor. But as soon as the first glimpse of sun
entered the window, up he got, with stiff and grating
joints, but with a cheerful look ; limped toward me where
I lay ; pressed his forehead again against mine ; and said
his Ramadan was over.
Now, as I before hinted, I have no objection to any
person's religion, be it what it may, so long as that person
does not kill or insult any other person, because that other
person don't believe it also. But when a man's religion
becomes really frantic ; when it is a positive torment to
him ; and, in fine, makes this earth of ours an uncom-
fortable inn to lodge in ; then I think it high time to take
that individual aside and argue the point with him.
And just so I now did with Queequeg. ' Queequeg,'
said I, ' get into bed now, and lie and listen to me.' I
then went on, beginning with the rise and progress of
the primitive religions, and coming down to the various
religions of the present time, during which time I laboured
to show Queequeg that all these Lents, Ramadans, and
prolonged ham-squattings in cold, cheerless rooms were
stark nonsense ; bad for the health ; useless for the soul ;
opposed, in short, to the obvious laws of hygiene and
common-sense. I told him, too, that he being in other
things such an extremely sensible and sagacious savage,
it pained me, very badly pained me, to see him now so
deplorably foolish about this ridiculous Ramadan of his.
Besides, argued I, fasting makes the body cave in ; hence
the spirit caves in ; and all thoughts born of a fast must
necessarily be half -starved. This is the reason why most
108 MOBY-DICK
dyspeptic religionists cherish such melancholy notions
about their hereafters. In one word, Queequeg, said I,
rather digressively ; hell is an idea first born on an un-
digested apple-dumpling ; and since then perpetuated
through the hereditary dyspepsias nurtured by Bamadans.
I then asked Queequeg whether he himself was ever
troubled with dyspepsia ; expressing the idea very plainly,
so that he could take it in. He said no ; only upon one
memorable occasion. It was after a great feast given
by his father the King, on the gaming of a great battle
wherein fifty of the enemy had been killed by about two
o'clock in the afternoon, and all cooked and eaten that
very evening.
4 No more, Queequeg,' said I, shuddering ; 'that will
do ' ; for I knew the inferences without his further hint-
ing them. I had seen a sailor who had visited that very
island, and he told me that it was the custom, when a
great battle had been gained there, to barbecue all the
slain in the yard or garden of the victor ; and then, one
by one, they were placed in great wooden trenchers, and
garnished round like a pilau, with breadfruit and cocoa-
nuts ; and with some parsley in their mouths, were sent
round with the victor's compliments to all his friends,
just as though these presents were so many Christmas
turkeys.
After all, I do not think that my remarks about religion
made much impression upon Queequeg. Because, in
the first place, he somehow seemed dull of hearing on
that important subject, unless considered from his own
point of view ; and, in the second place, he did not more
than one-third understand me, couch my ideas simply as
I would ; and, finally, he no doubt thought he knew a
good deal more about the true religion than I did. He
looked at me with a sort of condescending concern and
compassion, as though he thought it a great pity that such
THE RAMADAN 109
a sensible young man should be so hopelessly lost to
evangelical pagan piety.
At last we rose and dressed ; and Queequeg, taking a
prodigiously hearty breakfast of chowders of all sorts, so
that the landlady should not make much profit by reason
of his Ramadan, we sallied out to board the Pequod,
sauntering along, and picking our teeth with halibut
bones.
CHAPTER XVIII
HIS MARK
As we were walking down the end of the wharf toward
the ship, Queequeg carrying his harpoon, Captain Peleg
in his gruff voice loudly hailed us from his wigwam, saying
he had not suspected my friend was a cannibal, and
furthermore announcing that he let no cannibals on
board that craft, unless they previously produced their
papers.
' What do you mean by that, Captain Peleg ? ' said I,
now jumping on the bulwarks, and leaving my comrade
standing on the wharf.
' I mean,' he replied, ' he must show his papers.'
' Yea,' said Captain Bildad in his hollow voice, sticking
his head from behind Peleg 's, out of the wigwam. ' He
must show that he 's converted. Son of darkness/ he
added, turning to Queequeg, c art thou at present in
communion with any Christian church ? '
' Why/ said I, ' he 's a member of the First Congrega-
tional Church/ Here be it said, that many tattooed
savages sailing in Nantucket ships at last come to be
converted into the churches.
' First Congregational Church/ cried Bildad, ' what !
that worships in Deacon Deuteronomy Cole man's meeting-
house ? ' and so saying, taking out his spectacles, he rubbed
them with his great yellow bandana handkerchief, and
putting them on very carefully, came out of the wigwam,
and leaning stiffly over the bulwarks, took a good long
look at Queequeg.
IIP
HIS MARK 111
* How long hath he been a member ? ' he then said,
turning to me ; ' not very long, I rather guess, young
man.'
4 No/ said Peleg, ' and he hasn't been baptized right
either, or it would have washed some of that devil's blue
off his face.'
' Do tell, now/ cried Bildad, ' is this Philistine a
regular member of Deacon Deuteronomy's meeting ?
I never saw him going there, and I pass it every Lord's
day.'
' I don't know anything about Deacon Deuteronomy
or his meeting/ said I, ' all I know is, that Queequeg here
is a born member of the First Congregational Church.
He is a deacon himself, Queequeg is.'
' Young man/ said Bildad sternly, ' thou art skylarking
with me explain thyself, thou young Hittite. What
church dost thee mean ? answer me.'
Finding myself thus hard pushed, I replied, ' I mean, sir,
the same ancient Catholic Church to which you and I,
and Captain Peleg there, and Queequeg here, and all of
us, and every mother's son and soul of us belong ; the
great and everlasting First Congregation of this whole
worshipping world ; we all belong to that ; only some of
us cherish some queer crotchets no ways touching the
grand belief ; in that we all join hands/
' Splice, thou mean'st splice hands/ cried Peleg, draw-
ing nearer. ' Young man, you 'd better ship for a mis-
sionary, instead of a foremast hand ; I never heard a
better sermon. Deacon Deuteronomy why Father
Mapple himself couldn't beat it, and he 's reckoned some-
thing. Come aboard, come aboard ; never mind about
the papers. I say, tell Quohog there what 's that you
call him ? tell Quohog to step along. By the great
anchor, what a harpoon he 's got there ! looks like good
stuff that ; and he handles it about right. I say, Quohog,
112 MOBY-DICK
or whatever your name is, did you ever stand in the head
of a whale-boat ? did you ever strike a fish ? '
Without saying a word, Queequeg, in his wild sort of
way, jumped upon the bulwarks, from thence into the
bows of one of the whale-boats hanging to the side ; and
then bracing his left knee, and poising his harpoon, cried
out in some such way as this :
' Cap'ain, you see him small drop tar on water dere ?
You see him ? well, spose him one whale eye, well, den ! '
and taking sharp aim at it, he darted the iron right over
old Bildad's broad brim, clean across the ship's decks,
and struck the glistening tar spot out of sight/
' Now, 5 said Queequeg, quietly hauling in the line,
* spos-ee him whale-e eye ; why, dad whale dead.'
' Quick, Bildad,' said Peleg to his partner, who, aghast
at the close vicinity of the flying harpoon, had retreated
toward the cabin gangway. ' Quick, I say, you, Bildad,
and get the ship's papers. We must have Hedgehog
there, I mean Quohog, in one of our boats. Look ye,
Quohog, we '11 give ye the ninetieth lay, and that 's
more than ever was given a harpooneer yet out of
Nantucket.'
So down we went into the cabin, and to my great joy
Queequeg was soon enrolled among the same ship's
company to which I myself belonged.
When all preliminaries were over and Peleg had got
everything ready for signing, he turned to me and said,
' I guess, Quohog there don't know how to write, does he ?
I say, Quohog, blast ye ! dost thou sign thy name or
make thy mark ? '
But at this question, Queequeg, who had twice or
thrice before taken part in similar ceremonies, looked
no ways abashed ; but taking the offered pen, copied
upon the paper, in the proper place, an exact counterpart
of a queer round figure which was tattooed upon his arm ;
HIS MARK 113
so that through Captain Peleg's obstinate mistake touch-
ing his appellative, it stood something like this :
Quohog.
his >J< mark.
Meanwhile Captain Bildad sat earnestly and stead-
fastly eyeing Queequeg, and at last rising solemnly and
fumbling in the huge pockets of his broad-skirted drab
coat, took out a bundle of tracts, and selecting one entitled
' The Latter Day Coming ; or No Time to Lose,' placed
it in Queequeg 's hands, and then grasping them and the
book with both his, looked earnestly into his eyes, and
said, ' Son of darkness, I must do my duty by thee ; I am
part owner of this ship, and feel concerned for the souls of
all its crew ; if thou still clingest to thy pagan ways, which
I sadly fear, I beseech thee, remain not for aye a Belial
bondsman. Spurn the idol Bell, and the hideous dragon ;
turn from the wrath to come ; mind thine eye, I say ; oh !
goodness gracious ! steer clear of the fiery pit ! '
Something of the salt sea yet lingered in old Bildad's
language, heterogeneously mixed with Scriptural and
domestic phrases.
' Avast there, avast there, Bildad, avast now spoiling
our harpooneer,' cried Peleg. ' Pious harpooneers never
make good voyagers it takes the shark out of 'em ; no
harpooneer is worth a straw who ain't pretty sharkish.
There was young Nat Swaine, once the bravest boat-
header out of all Nantucket and the Vineyard ; he joined
the meeting, and never came to good. He got so
frightened about his plaguy soul, that he shrinked and
sheered away from whales, for fear of after-claps, in case
he got stove and went to Davy Jones.'
c Peleg ! Peleg ! ' said Bildad, lifting his eyes and hands,
'thou thyself, as I myself, hast seen many a perilous
time ; thou knowest, Peleg, what it is to have the fear of
VOL. I. H
114 MOBY-DICK
death ; how, then, can'st thou prate in this ungodly guise.
Thou beliest thine own heart, Peleg. Tell me, when this
same Pequod here had her three masts overboard in that
typhoon on Japan, that same voyage when thou went
mate with Captain Ahab, didst thou not think of Death
and the Judgment then ? '
' Hear him, hear him now, ' cried Peleg, marching across
the cabin, and thrusting his hands far down into his
pockets, ' hear him, all of ye. Think of that ! When
every moment we thought the ship would sink ! Death
and the Judgment then ? What ? With all three masts
making such an everlasting thundering against the side ;
and every sea breaking over us, fore and aft. Think of
Death and the Judgment then ? No ! no time to think
about Death then. Life was what Captain Ahab and I
was thinking of ; and how to save all hands how to rig
jury-masts how to get into the nearest port ; that was
what I was thinking of. }
Bildad said no more, but buttoning up his coat, stalked
on deck, where we followed him. There he stood, very
quietly overlooking some sail-makers who were mending
a topsail in the waist. Now and then he stooped to pick
up a patch, or save an end of the tarred twine, which
otherwise might have been wasted.
CHAPTER XIX
THE PEOPHET
' SHIPMATES, have ye shipped in that ship ? '
Queequeg and I had just left the Pequod, and were
sauntering away from the water, for the moment each
occupied with his own thoughts, when the above words
were put to us by a stranger, who, pausing before us,
levelled his massive forefinger at the vessel in question.
He was but shabbily apparelled in faded jacket and
patched trowsers ; a rag of a black handkerchief investing
his neck. A confluent small-pox had in all directions
flowed over his face, and left it like the complicated ribbed
bed of a torrent, when the rushing waters have been
dried up.
4 Have ye shipped in her ? ' he repeated.
4 You mean the ship Pequod, I suppose,' said I, trying
to gain a little more time for an uninterrupted look at him.
' Ay, the Pequod that ship there/ he said, drawing
back his whole arm, and then rapidly shoving it straight
out from him, with the fixed bayonet of his pointed
finger darted full at the object.
' Yes,' said I, ' we have just signed the articles.'
' Anything down there about your souls ? '
' About what ? '
' Oh, perhaps you hav'n't got any,' he said quickly.
No matter though, I know many chaps that hav'n't got
ly, good luck to 'em ; and they are all the better off for
it. A soul 's a sort of a fifth wheel to a wagon.'
' What are you jabbering about, shipmate ? ' said I.
115
!
116 MOBY-DICK
' He 's got enough, though, to make up for all de-
ficiencies of that sort in other chaps,' abruptly said the
stranger, placing a nervous emphasis upon the word he.
' Queequeg,' said I, ' let 's go ; this fellow has broken
loose from somewhere ; he 's talking about something
and somebody we don't know.'
' Stop ! ' cried the stranger. ' Ye said true ye
hav'n't seen Old Thunder yet, have ye ? '
' Who 's Old Thunder ? ' said I, again riveted with the
insane earnestness of his manner.
' Captain Ahab.'
' What ! the captain of our ship, the Pequod ? '
' Ay, among some of us old sailor chaps, he goes by
that name. Ye hav'n't seen him yet, have ye ? '
' No, we hav'n't. He 's sick, they say, but is getting
better, and will be all right again before long.'
4 All right again before long ! ' laughed the stranger,
with a solemnly derisive sort of laugh. ' Look ye ; when
Captain Ahab is all right, then this left arm of mine will
be all right ; not before.'
i What do you know about him ? '
' What did they tell you about him ? Say that ! '
' They didn't tell much of anything about him ; only
I 've heard that he 's a good whale -hunter, and a good
captain to his crew.'
' That 's true, that 's true yes, both true enough.
But you must jump when he gives an order. Step and
growl ; growl and go that 's the word with Captain
Ahab. But nothing about that thing that happened to
him off Cape Horn, long ago, when he lay like dead for
three days and nights ; nothing about that deadly scrim-
mage with the Spaniard afore the altar in Santa ? heard
nothing about that, eh ? Nothing about the silver cala-
bash he spat into ? And nothing about his losing his
leg last voyage, according to the prophecy. Didn't ye
THE PROPHET 117
hear a word about them matters and something more, eh ?
No, I don't think ye did ; how could ye ? Who knows
it ? Not all Nantucket, I guess. But hows'ever, may-
hap, ye Ve heard tell about the leg, and how he lost it ;
ay> ye have heard of that, I dare say. Oh yes, that
every one knows a 'most I mean they know he 's only
one leg ; and that a parmacetti took the other off.'
4 My friend/ said I, ' what all this gibberish of yours is
about, I don't know, and I don't much care ; for it seems
to me that you must be a little damaged in the head.
But if you are speaking of Captain Ahab of that ship there,
the Pequod, then let me tell you, that I know all about
the loss of his leg.'
' All about it, eh sure you do ? all ? '
* Pretty sure.'
With finger pointed and eye levelled at the Pequod, the
beggar-like stranger stood a moment, as if in a troubled
re very ; then starting a little, turned and said, ' Ye Ve
shipped, have ye ? Names down on the papers ? Well,
well, what 's signed, is signed ; and what 's to be, will be ;
and then again, perhaps it won't be, after all. Anyhow,
it's all fixed and arranged a 'ready ; and some sailors
or other must go with him, I suppose ; as well these as
any other men, God pity 'em ! Morning to ye, shipmates,
morning ; the ineffable heavens bless ye ; I 'm sorry I
stopped ye.'
' Look here, friend,' said I, 'if you have anything im-
portant to tell us, out with it ; but if you are only trying
to bamboozle us, you are mistaken in your game ; that 's
all I have to say.'
' And it 's said very well, and I like to hear a chap talk
up that way ; you are just the man for him the likes of
ye. Morning to ye, shipmates, morning ! Oh ! when ye get
there, tell 'em I Ve concluded not to make one of 'em.'
' Ah, my dear fellow, you can't fool us that way you
118 MOBY-DICK
can't fool us. It is the easiest thing in the world for a man
to look as if he had a great secret in him.'
' Morning to ye, shipmates, morning.'
' Morning it is,' said I. ' Come along, Queequeg, let 's
leave this crazy man. But stop, tell me your name, will
you?'
^Elijah/
Elijah ! thought I, and we walked away, both comment-
ing, after each other's fashion, upon this ragged old sailor ;
and agreed that he was nothing but a humbug, trying to
be a bugbear. But we had not gone perhaps above a
hundred yards, when chancing to turn a corner, and look-
ing back as I did so, who should be seen but Elijah follow-
ing us, though at a distance. Somehow, the sight of him
struck me so, that I said nothing to Queequeg of his being
behind, but passed on with my comrade, anxious to see
whether the stranger would turn the same corner that we
did. He did ; and then it seemed to me that he was
dogging us, but with what intent I could not for the life
of me imagine. This circumstance, coupled with his
ambiguous, half-hinting, half-revealing, shrouded sort of
talk, now begat in me all kinds of vague wonderments
and half -apprehensions, and all connected with the
Pequod ; and Captain Ahab ; and the leg he had lost ;
and the Cape Horn fit ; and the silver calabash ; and what
Captain Peleg had said of him, when I left the ship the
day previous ; and the prediction of the squaw Tistig ;
and the voyage we had bound ourselves to sail ; and a
hundred other shadowy things.
I was resolved to satisfy myself whether this ragged Elijah
was really dogging us or not, and with that intent crossed
the way with Queequeg, and on that side of it retraced our
steps. But Elijah passed on, without seeming to notice
us. This relieved me ; and once more, and finally as it
seemed to me, I pronounced him in my heart, a humbug.
CHAPTER XX
ALL ASTIR
A DAY or two passed, and there was great activity aboard
the Pequod. Not only were the old sails being mended,
but new sails were coming on board, and bolts of canvas,
and coils of rigging ; in short, everything betokened that
the ship's preparations were hurrying to a close. Captain
Peleg seldom or never went ashore, but sat in his wigwam
keeping a sharp look-out upon the hands : Bildad did all
the purchasing and providing at the stores ; and the men
employed in the hold and on the rigging were working till
long after night-fall.
On the day following Queequeg's signing the articles,
word was given at all the inns where the ship's company were
stopping, that their chests must be on board before night,
for there was no telling how soon the vessel might be sailing.
So Queequeg and I got down our traps, resolving, how-
ever, to sleep ashore till the last. But it seems they always
give very long notice in these cases, and the ship did not
sail for several days. But no wonder ; there was a good
deal to be done, and there is no telling how many things
to be thought of, before the Pequod was fully equipped.
Everyone knows what a multitude of things beds,
saucepans, knives and forks, shovels and tongs, napkins,
nut -crackers, and what not, are indispensable to the
business of housekeeping. Just so with whaling, which
necessitates a three -years' housekeeping upon the wide
ocean, far from all grocers, costermongers, doctors, bakers,
and bankers . And though this also holds true of merchant
120 MOBY-DICK
vessels, yet not by any means to the same extent as with
whalemen. For besides the great length of the whaling
voyage, the numerous articles peculiar to the prosecution
of the fishery, and the impossibility of replacing them at
the remote harbours usually frequented, it must be
remembered, that of all ships, whaling-vessels are the most
exposed to accidents of all kinds, and especially to the
destruction and loss of the very things upon which the
success of the voyage most depends. Hence, the spare
boats, spare spars, and spare lines and harpoons, and spare
everythings, almost, but a spare captain and duplicate
ship.
At the period of our arrival at the Island, the heaviest
storage of the Pequod had been almost completed ; com-
prising her beef, bread, water, fuel, and iron hoops and
staves. But, as before hinted, for some time there was a
continual fetching and carrying on board of divers odds
and ends of things, both large and small.
Chief among those who did this fetching and carrying
was Captain Bildad's sister, a lean old lady of a most
determined and indefatigable spirit, but withal very kind-
hearted, who seemed resolved that, if she could help it,
nothing should be found wanting in the Pequod, after
once fairly getting to sea. At one time she would come
on board with a jar of pickles for the steward's pantry ;
another time with a bunch of quills for the chief mate's
desk, where he kept his log ; a third time with a roll of
flannel for the small of some one's rheumatic back. Never
did any woman better deserve her name, which was
Charity Aunt Charity, as everybody called her. And
like a sister of charity did this charitable Aunt Charity
bustle about hither and thither, ready to turn her hand
and heart to anything that promised to yield safety,
comfort, and consolation to all on board a ship in which
her beloved brother Bildad was concerned, and in
ALL ASTIR 121
which she herself owned a score or two of well-saved
dollars.
But it was startling to see this excellent-hearted
Quakeress coming on board, as she did the last day, with
a long oil-ladle in one hand, and a still longer whaling-
lance in the other. Nor was Bildad himself nor Captain
Peleg at all backward. As for Bildad, he carried about
with him a long list of the articles needed, and at every
fresh arrival, down went his mark opposite that article
upon the paper. Every once and a while Peleg came
hobbling out of his whalebone den, roaring at the men
down the hatchways, roaring up to the riggers at the
mast-head, and then concluded by roaring back into his
wigwam.
During these days of preparation, Queequeg and I often
visited the craft, and as often I asked about Captain
Ahab, and how he was, and when he was going to come on
board his ship. To these questions they would answer,
that he was getting better and better, and was expected
aboard every day ; meantime, the two captains, Peleg
and Bildad, could attend to everything necessary to fit the
vessel for the voyage. If I had been downright honest
with myself, I would have seen very plainly in my heart
that I did but half fancy being committed this way to
so long a voyage, without once laying my eyes on the man
who was to be the absolute dictator of it, so soon as the
ship sailed out upon the open sea. But when a man
suspects any wrong, it sometimes happens that if he be
already involved in the matter, he insensibly strives to
cover up his suspicions even from himself. And much
this way it was with me. I said nothing, and tried to
think nothing.
At last it was given out that some time next day the
ship would certainly sail. So next morning, Queequeg
and I took a very early start.
CHAPTER XXI
GOING ABOARD
IT was nearly six o'clock, but only gray imperfect misty
dawn, when we drew nigh the wharf.
' There are some sailors running ahead there, if I see
right/ said I to Queequeg, ' it can't be shadows ; she 's off
by sunrise, I guess ; come on ! '
' Avast ! ' cried a voice, whose owner at the same time
coming close behind us, laid a hand upon both our
shoulders, and then insinuating himself between us, stood
stooping forward a little, in the uncertain twilight,
strangely peering from Queequeg to me. It was
Elijah.
c Going aboard ? '
' Hands off, will you,' said I.
' Lookee here,' said Queequeg, shaking himself, ' go
'way ! '
' Ain't going aboard, then ? '
' Yes, we are,' said I, ' but what business is that of
yours ? Do you know, Mr. Elijah, that I consider you a
little impertinent ? '
' No, no, no ; I wasn't aware of that,' said Elijah,
slowly and wonderingly looking from me to Queequeg,
with the most unaccountable glances.
' Elijah,' said I, ' you will oblige my friend and me by
withdrawing. We are going to the Indian and Pacific
Oceans, and would prefer not to be detained.'
c Ye be, be ye ? Coming back afore breakfast ? '
' He 's cracked, Queequeg,' said I ; ' come on.'
122
GOING ABOARD 123
' Halloa ! ' cried stationary Elijah, hailing us when we
had removed a few paces.
' Never mind him/ said I ; ' Queequeg, come on. 5
But he stole up to us again, and suddenly clapping his
hand on my shoulder, said, ' Did ye see anything looking
like men going toward that ship a while ago ? '
Struck by this plain matter-of-fact question, I answered,
saying, ' Yes, I thought I did see four or five men ; but it
was too dim to be sure.'
' Very dim, very dim,' said Elijah. ' Morning to ye.'
Once more we quitted him ; but once more he came
softly after us ; and touching my shoulder again, said,
4 See if you can find 'em now, will ye ? '
' Find who ? '
* Morning to ye ! morning to ye ! ' he rejoined, again
moving off. ' Oh ! I was going to warn ye against
but never mind, never mind it 's all one, all in the
family too ; sharp frost this morning, ain't it ? Good-
bye to ye. Shan't see ye again very soon, I guess ; unless
it 's before the Grand Jury.' And with these cracked
words he finally departed, leaving me, for the moment, in
no small wonderment at his frantic impudence.
At last, stepping on board the Peqiiod, we found every-
thing in profound quiet, not a soul moving. The cabin
entrance was locked within ; the hatches were all on, and
lumbered with coils of rigging. Going forward to the
forecastle, we found the slide of the scuttle open. Seeing
a light, we went down, and found only an old rigger there,
wrapped in a tattered pea-jacket. He was thrown at
whole length upon two chests, his face downward and
enclosed in his folded arms. The profoundest slumber
slept upon him.
' Those sailors we saw, Queequeg, where can they have
gone to ? ' said I, looking dubiously at the sleeper. But
it seemed that, when on the wharf, Queequeg had not at
124 MOBY-DICK
all noticed what I now alluded to ; hence I would have
thought myself to have been optically deceived in that
matter, were it not for Elijah's otherwise inexplicable
question. But I beat the thing down ; and again mark-
ing the sleeper, jocularly hinted to Queequeg that perhaps
we had best sit up with the body ; telling him to estab-
lish himself accordingly. He put his hand upon the
sleeper's rear, as though feeling if it was soft enough ; and
then, without more ado, sat quietly down there.
' Gracious ! Queequeg, don't sit there,' said I.
c Oh ! perry dood seat,' said Queequeg, ' my country
way ; won't hurt him face.'
' Face ! ' said I, ' call that his face ? very benevolent
countenance then ; but how hard he breathes, he ? s
heaving himself ; get off, Queequeg, you are heavy, it 's
grinding the face of the poor. Get off, Queequeg ! Look,
he '11 twitch you off soon. I wonder he don't wake.'
Queequeg removed himself to just beyond the head of
the sleeper, and lighted his tomahawk-pipe. I sat at the
feet. We kept the pipe passing over the sleeper, from
one to the other. Meanwhile, upon questioning him in
his broken fashion, Queequeg gave me to understand
that, in his land, owing to the absence of settees and sofas
of all sorts, the king, chiefs, and great people generally,
were in the custom of fattening some of the lower orders
for ottomans ; and to furnish a house comfortably in that
respect, you had only to buy up eight or ten lazy fellows,
and lay them round in the piers and alcoves. Besides,
it was very convenient on an excursion ; much better
than those garden-chairs which are convertible into
walking-sticks ; upon occasion, a chief calling his attend-
ant, and desiring him to make a settee of himself
under a spreading tree, perhaps in some damp marshy
place.
While narrating these things, every time Queequeg
GOING ABOARD 125
received the tomahawk from me, he flourished the hatchet -
side of it over the sleeper's head.
' What 's that for, Queequeg ? '
' Perry easy, kill-e ; oh ! perry easy ! '
He was going on with some wild reminiscences about
his tomahawk-pipe, which, it seemed, had in its two uses
both brained his foes and soothed his soul, when we were
directly attracted to the sleeping rigger. The strong
vapour now completely filling the contracted hole, it began
to tell upon him. He breathed with a sort of muffledness ;
then seemed troubled in the nose ; then revolved over
once or twice ; then sat up and rubbed his eyes.
4 Halloa ! ' he breathed at last, ' who be ye smokers ? '
' Shipped men/ answered I. c When does she sail ? '
' Ay, ay, ye are going in her, be ye ? She sails to-
day. The captain came aboard last night.'
' What captain ? Ahab ? '
' Who but him indeed ? '
I was going to ask him some further questions concern-
ing Ahab, when we heard a noise on deck.
' Halloa ! Starbuck 's astir,' said the rigger. ' He 's
a lively chief mate, that ; .good man, and a pious ; but
all alive now, I must turn to.' And so saying he went on
deck, and we followed.
It was now clear sunrise. Soon the crew came on board
in twos and threes ; the riggers bestirred themselves ; the
mates were actively engaged ; and several of the shore
people were busy in bringing various last things on board.
Meanwhile Captain Ahab remained invisibly enshrined
within his cabin.
CHAPTER XXII
MERRY CHRISTMAS
AT length, toward noon, upon the final dismissal of the
ship's riggers, and after the Pequod had been hauled out
from the wharf, and after the ever-thoughtful Charity
had come off in a whale-boat, with her last gift a night-
cap for Stubb, the second mate, her brother-in-law, and
a spare Bible for the steward after all this, the two
captains, Peleg and Bildad, issued from the cabin, and
turning to the chief mate, Peleg said :
' Now, Mr. Starbuck, are you sure everything is right ?
Captain Ahab is all ready just spoke to him nothing
more to be got from shore, eh ? Well, call all hands,
then. Muster 'em aft here blast 'em ! '
' No need of profane words, however great the hurry,
Peleg,' said Bildad, ' but away with thee, friend Starbuck,
and do our bidding.'
How now ! Here upon the very point of starting for
the voyage, Captain Peleg and Captain Bildad were going
it with a high hand on the quarter-deck, just as if they
were to be joint-commanders at sea, as well as to all
appearances in port. And, as for Captain Ahab, no sign
of him was yet to be seen ; only, they said he was in the
cabin. But then, the idea was, that his presence was by
no means necessary in getting the ship under weigh, and
steering her well out to sea. Indeed, as that was not at
all his proper business, but the pilot's ; and as he was not
yet completely recovered so they said therefore, Cap-
tain Ahab stayed below. And all this seemed natural
126
MEKRY CHRISTMAS 127
enough ; especially as in the merchant service many
captains never show themselves on deck for a consider-
able time after heaving up the anchor, but remain over
the cabin table, having a farewell merry-making with
their shore friends, before they quit the ship for good
with the pilot.
But there was not much chance to think over the
matter, for Captain Peleg was now all alive. He seemed to
do most of the talking and commanding, and not Bildad.
' Aft here, ye sons of bachelors,' he cried, as the sailors
lingered at the mainmast. ' Mr. Starbuck, drive 'em
aft.'
' Strike the tent there ! ' was the next order. As I
hinted before, this whalebone marquee was never pitched
except in port ; and on board the Pequod, for thirty years,
the order to strike the tent was well known to be the next
thing to heaving up the anchor.
' Man the capstan ! Blood and thunder ! jump ! '
was the next command, and the crew sprang for the
handspikes.
Now, in getting under weigh, the station generally
occupied by the pilot is the forward part of the ship.
And here Bildad, who, with Peleg, be it known, in addi-
tion to his other offices, was one of the licensed pilots of
the port he being suspected to have got himself made a
pilot in order to save the Nantucket pilot -fee to all the
ships he was concerned in, for he never piloted any other
craft Bildad, I say, might now be seen actively engaged
in looking over the bows for the approaching anchor,
and at intervals singing what seemed a dismal stave of
psalmody, to cheer the hands at the windlass, who roared
forth some sort of a chorus about the girls in Booble Alley,
with hearty goodwill. Nevertheless, not three days
previous, Bildad had told them that no profane songs
would be allowed on board the Pequod, particularly in
128 MOBY-DICK
getting under weigh ; and Charity, his sister, had placed
a small choice copy of Watts in each seaman's berth.
Meantime, overseeing the other part of the ship, Captain
Peleg ripped and swore astern in the most frightful
manner. I almost thought he would sink the ship before
the anchor could be got up ; involuntarily I paused on my
handspike, and told Queequeg to do the same, thinking
of the perils we both ran, in starting on the voyage with
such a devil for a pilot. I was comforting myself, how-
ever, with the thought that in pious Bildad might be
found some salvation, spite of his seven hundred and
seventy-seventh lay ; when I felt a sudden sharp poke
in my rear, and turning round, was horrified at the
apparition of Captain Peleg in the act of withdrawing
his leg from my immediate vicinity. That was my first
kick.
' Is that the way they heave in the marchant service ? '
he roared. ' Spring, thou sheep-head ; spring, and break
thy backbone ! Why don't ye spring, I say, all of ye
spring ! Quohag ! spring, thou chap with the red
whiskers ; spring there, Scotch-cap ; spring, thou green
pants. Spring, I say, all of ye, and spring your eyes out ! '
And so saying, he moved along the windlass, here and
there using his leg very freely, while imperturbable Bildad
kept leading off with his psalmody. Thinks I, Captain
Peleg must have been drinking something to-day.
At last the anchor was up, the sails were set, and off
we glided. It was a short, cold Christmas ; and as the
short northern day merged into night, we found ourselves
almost broad upon the wintry ocean, whose freezing spray
cased us in ice, as in polished armour. The long rows of
teeth on the bulwarks glistened in the moonlight ; and
like the white ivory tusks of some huge elephant, vast
curving icicles depended from the bows.
Lank Bildad, as pilot, headed the first watch, and ever
MERRY CHRISTMAS 129
and anon, as the old craft deep dived into the green seas,
and sent the shivering frost all over her, and the winds
howled, and the cordage rang, his steady notes were
heard,
* Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood,
Stand dressed in living green.
So to the Jews old Canaan stood,
While Jordan rolled between.'
Never did those sweet words sound more sweetly to me
than then. They were full of hope and fruition. Spite
of this frigid winter night in the boisterous Atlantic,
spite of my wet feet and wetter jacket, there was yet, it
then seemed to me, many a pleasant haven in store ; and
meads and glades so eternally vernal, that the grass shot
up by the spring, untrodden, unwilted, remains at
midsummer.
At last we gained such an offing, that the two pilots
were needed no longer. The stout sail-boat that had
accompanied us began ranging alongside.
It was curious and not unpleasing, how Peleg and Bildad
were affected at this juncture, especially Captain Bildad.
For loath to depart, yet ; very loath to leave, for good,
a ship bound on so long and perilous a voyage beyond
both stormy Capes ; a ship in which some thousands of
his hard-earned dollars were invested ; a ship, in which
an old shipmate sailed as captain ; a man almost as old
as he, once more starting to encounter all the terrors of
the pitiless jaw ; loath to say good-bye to a thing so every
way brimful of every interest to him, poor old Bildad
lingered long ; paced the deck with anxious strides ; ran
down into the cabin to speak another farewell word there ;
again came on deck, and looked to windward ; looked
toward the wide and endless waters, only bounded by the
* r-off unseen Eastern Continents ; looked toward the
VOL. I. I
130 MOBY-DICK
land ; looked aloft ; looked right and left ; looked every-
where and nowhere ; and at last, mechanically coiling
a rope upon its pin, convulsively grasped stout Peleg
by the hand, and holding up a lantern, for a moment stood
gazing heroically in his face, as much as to say, * Never-
theless, friend Peleg, I can stand it ; yes, I can.'
As for Peleg himself, he took it more like a philosopher ;
but for all his philosophy, there was a tear twinkling in
his eye, when the lantern came too near. And he, too,
did not a little run from cabin to deck now a word
below, and now a word with Starbuck, the chief mate.
But, at last, he turned to his comrade, with a final sort
of look about him, 4 Captain Bildad come, old ship-
mate, we must go. Back the main-yard there ! Boat
ahoy ! Stand by to come close alongside, now ! Careful,
careful ! come, Bildad, boy say your last. Luck to ye,
Starbuck luck to ye, Mr. Stubb luck to ye, Mr. Flask
good-bye, and good luck to ye all and this day three
years I '11 have a hot supper smoking for ye in old
Nantucket. Hurrah and away ! '
' God bless ye, and have ye in His holy keeping, men/
murmured old Bildad, almost incoherently. ' I hope
ye '11 have fine weather now, so that Captain Ahab may
soon be moving among ye a pleasant sun is all he needs,
and ye '11 have plenty of them in the tropic voyage ye go.
Be careful in the hunt, ye mates. Don't stave the boats
needlessly, ye harpooneers ; good white cedar plank is
raised full three per cent, within the year. Don't forget
your prayers, either. Mr. Starbuck, mind that cooper
don't waste the spare staves. Oh ! the sail-needles are
in the green locker ! Don't whale it too much a Lord's
days, men ; but don't miss a fair chance either, that 's
rejecting Heaven's good gifts. Have an eye to the
molasses tierce, Mr. Stubb ; it was a little leaky, I thought.
If ye touch at the islands, Mr. Flask, beware of fornica-
MERRY CHRISTMAS 131
tion. Good-bye, good-bye ! Don't keep that cheese too
long down in the hold, Mr. Starbuck ; it '11 spoil. Be
careful with the butter twenty cents the pound it was,
and mind ye, if
' Come, come, Captain Bildad ; stop palavering,
away ! ' and with that, Peleg hurried him over the side,
and both dropped into the boat.
Ship and boat diverged ; the cold, damp night breeze
blew between ; a screaming gull flew overhead ; the two
hulls wildly rolled ; we gave three heavy-hearted cheers,
and blindly plunged like fate into the lone Atlantic.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE LEE SHORE
SOME chapters back, one Bulkington was spoken of, a tall,
new-landed mariner, encountered in New Bedford at the
inn.
When on that shivering winter's night the Pequod
thrust her vindictive bows into the cold malicious waves,
who should I see standing at her helm but Bulkington !
I looked with sympathetic awe and fearfulness upon the
man, who in mid- winter just landed from a four years'
dangerous voyage, could so unrestingly push off again
for still another tempestuous term. The land seemed
scorching to his feet. Wonderfullest things are ever the
unmentionable ; deep memories yield no epitaphs ; this
six-inch chapter is the stoneless grave of Bulkington. Let
me only say that it fared with him as with the storm-tossed
ship, that miserably drives along the leeward land. The
port would fain give succour ; the port is pitiful ; in the
port is safety, comfort, hearthstone, supper, warm
blankets, friends, all that 's kind to our mortalities. But
in that gale, the port, the land, is that ship's direst
jeopardy ; she must fly all hospitality ; one touch of land,
though it but graze the keel, would make her shudder
through and through. With all her might she crowds all
sail off shore ; in so doing, fights 'gainst the very winds
that fain would blow her homeward ; seeks all the lashed
sea's landlessness again ; for refuge's sake forlornly
rushing into peril ; her only friend her bitterest foe !
Know ye, now, Bulkington ? Glimpses do ye seem to
132
THE LEE SHORE 133
see of that mortally intolerable truth ; that all deep,
earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to
keep the open independence of her sea ; while the wildest
winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the
treacherous, slavish shore ?
But as in landlessness alone resides the highest truth,
shoreless, indefinite as God so, better is it to perish in
that howling infinite, than be ingloriously dashed upon
the lee, even if that were safety ! For worm-like, then,
oh ! who would craven crawl to land ! Terrors of the
terrible ! is all this agony so vain ? Take heart, take
heart, Bulkington ! Bear thee grimly, demigod ! Up
from the spray of thy ocean-perishing straight up,
leaps thy apotheosis !
CHAPTER XXIV
THE ADVOCATE
As Queequeg and I are now fairly embarked in this busi-
ness of whaling ; and as this business of whaling has some-
how come to be regarded among landsmen as a rather
unpoetical and disreputable pursuit ; therefore, I am all
anxiety to convince ye, ye landsmen, of the injustice
hereby done to us hunters of whales.
In the first place, it may be deemed almost superfluous
to establish the fact, that among people at large, the
business of whaling is not accounted on a level with what
are called the liberal professions. If a stranger were
introduced into any miscellaneous metropolitan society,
it would but slightly advance the general opinion of his
merits, were he presented to the company as a harpooneer,
say ; and if in emulation of the naval officers he should
append the initials S.W.F. (Sperm Whale Fishery) to
his visiting card, such a procedure would be deemed pre-
eminently presuming and ridiculous.
Doubtless one leading reason why the world declines
honouring us whalemen is this : they think that, at best,
our vocation amounts to a butchering sort of business ;
and that when actively engaged therein, we are surrounded
by all manner of defilements. Butchers we are, that is
true. But butchers, also, and butchers of the bloodiest
badge, have been all Martial Commanders whom the world
invariably delights to honour. And as for the matter of
the alleged uncleanliness of our business, ye shall soon
be initiated into certain facts hitherto pretty generally
134
THE ADVOCATE 185
unknown, and which, upon the whole, will triumphantly
plant the sperm whale-ship at least among the cleanliest
things of this tidy earth. But even granting the charge
in question to be true ; what disordered slippery decks
of a whale-ship are comparable to the unspeakable carrion
of those battlefields from which so many soldiers return
to drink in all ladies' plaudits ? And if the idea of peril
so much enhances the popular conceit of the soldier's
profession ; let me assure ye that many a veteran who
has freely marched up to a battery, would quickly recoil
at the apparition of the sperm whale's vast tail, fanning
into eddies the air over his head. For what are the
comprehensible terrors of man compared with the inter- i
linked terrors and wonders of God !
But, though the world scouts at us whale-hunters, yet
does it unwittingly pay us the profoundest homage ; yea,
an all-abounding adoration ! for almost all the tapers,
lamps, and candles that burn round the globe, burn,
as before so many shrines, to our glory !
But look at this matter in other lights ; weigh it in all
sorts of scales ; see what we whalemen are, and have been.
Why did the Dutch in De Witt's time have admirals
of their whaling-fleets ? Why did Louis xvi. of France,
at his own personal expense, fit out whaling-ships from
Dunkirk, and politely invite to that town some score or
two of families from our own island of Nantucket ? Why
did Britain between the years 1750 and 1788 pay to her
whalemen in bounties upward of 1,000,000 ? And
lastly, how comes it that we whalemen of America now\
outnumber all the rest of the banded whalemen hi the \
world ; sail a navy of upward of seven hundred vessels ;
manned by eighteen thousand men ; yearly consuming
4,000,000 of dollars ; the ships worth, at the time of
sailing, $20,000,000 ; and every year importing into our
harbours a well-reaped harvest of $7,000,000. How
136 MOBY-DICK
comes all this, if there be not something puissant in
whaling ?
But this is not the half ; look again.
I freely assert, that the cosmopolite philosopher cannot,
for his life, point out one single peaceful influence, which
within the last sixty years has operated more potentially
upon the whole broad world, taken in one aggregate, than
the high and mighty business of whaling. One way and
another, it has begotten events so remarkable in them-
selves, and so continuously momentous in their sequential
f issues, that whaling may well be regarded as that Egyptian
/ mother, who bore offspring themselves pregnant from her
womb. It would be a hopeless, endless task to catalogue
all these things. Let a handful suffice. For many years
\ past the whale-ship has been the pioneer in ferreting out
the remotest and least known parts of the earth. She has
explored seas and archipelagoes which had no chart,
where no Cook or Vancouver had ever sailed. If Ameri-
can and European men-of-war now peacefully ride in once
savage harbours, let them fire salutes to the honour and
the glory of the whale-ship, which originally showed them
the way, and first interpreted between them and the
savages. They may celebrate as they will the heroes
of exploring expeditions, your Cooks, your Krusen-
sterns ; but I say that scores of anonymous captains
have sailed out of Nantucket, that were as great, and
greater than your Cook and your Krusenstern. For in
their succourless empty-handedness, they, in the heathen-
ish sharked waters, and by the beaches of unrecorded,
javelin islands, battled with virgin wonders and terrors
that Cook with all his marines and muskets would not
willingly have dared. All that is made such a flourish of
in the old South Sea Voyages, those things were but the
lifetime commonplaces of our heroic Nantucketers.
Often, adventures which Vancouver dedicates three
THE ADVOCATE 137
chapters to, these men accounted unworthy of being set
down in the ship's common log. Ah, the world ! Oh,
the world !
Until the whale-fishery rounded Cape Horn, no com-
merce but colonial, scarcely any intercourse but colonial,
was carried on between Europe and the long line of the
opulent Spanish provinces on the Pacific coast. It was
the whaleman who first broke through the jealous policy
of the Spanish crown, touching those colonies ; and, if
space permitted, it might be distinctly shown how from
those whalemen at last eventuated the liberation of Peru,
Chili, and Bolivia from the yoke of Old Spain, and the
establishment of the eternal democracy in those parts.
That great America on the other side of the sphere,
Australia, was given to the enlightened world by the
whaleman. After its first blunder-born discovery by a
Dutchman, all other ships long shunned those shores as
pestiferously barbarous ; but the whale -ship touched
there. The whale-ship is the true mother of that now
mighty colony. Moreover, in the infancy of the first
Australian settlement, the emigrants were several times
saved from starvation by the benevolent biscuit of the
whale -ship luckily dropping an anchor in their waters.
The uncounted isles of all Polynesia confess the same
truth, and do commercial homage to the whale-ship, that
cleared the way for the missionary and the merchant, and
in many cases carried the primitive missionaries to their
first destinations. If that double -bolted land, Japan,
is ever to become hospitable, it is the whale-ship alone
to whom the credit will be due ; for already she is on the
threshold.
But if, in the face of all this, you still declare that
whaling has no aesthetically noble associations connected
with it, then am I ready to shiver fifty lances with you
jre, and unhorse you with a split helmet every time.
138 MOBY-DICK
The whale has no famous author, and whaling no
famous chronicler, you will say.
The whale no famous author, and whaling no famous
chronicler ? Who wrote the first account of our levia-
than ? Who but mighty Job ! And who composed the
first narrative of a whaling voyage ? Who, but no less
a prince than Alfred the Great, who, with his own royal
pen, took down the words from Other, the Norwegian
whale -hunter of those times ! And who pronounced our
glowing eulogy in Parliament ? Who, but Edmund
Burke !
True enough, but then whalemen themselves are poor
devils ; they have no good blood in their veins.
No good blood in their veins ? They have something
better than royal blood there. The grandmother of
Benjamin Franklin was Mary Morrel ; afterward, by
marriage, Mary Folger, one of the old settlers of Nantucket ?
and the ancestress to a long line of Folgers and har-
pooneers all kith and kin to noble Benjamin this day
darting the barbed iron from one side of the world to
the other.
Good again ; but then all confess that somehow whal-
ing is not respectable.
Whaling not respectable ? Whaling is imperial ! By old
English statutory law, the whale is declared 'a royal fish.' l
Oh, that 's only nominal ! The whale himself has never
figured in any grand imposing way.
The whale never figured in any grand imposing way ?
In one of the mighty triumphs given to a Roman general
upon his entering the world's capital, the bones of a whale,
brought all the way from the Syrian coast, were the most
conspicuous object in the cymballed procession. 1
Grant it, since you cite it ; but, say what you will,
there is no real dignity in whaling.
1 See subsequent chapters for something more on this head.
THE ADVOCATE 139
No dignity in whaling ? The dignity of our calling the
very heavens attest. Cetus is a constellation in the south !
No more ! Drive down your hat in presence of the Czar,
and take it off to Queequeg ! No more ! I know a man
that, in his lifetime, has taken three hundred and fifty
whales. I account that man more honourable than that
great captain of antiquity who boasted of taking as many
walled towns.
And, as for me, if, by any possibility, there be any as
yet undiscovered prime thing in me ; if I shall ever
deserve any real repute in that small but high hushed
world which I might not be unreasonably ambitious of ;
if hereafter I shall do anything that, upon the whole,
a man might rather have done than to have left undone ;
if, at my death, my executors, or more properly my
creditors, find any precious MSS. in my desk, then here
I prospectively ascribe all the honour and the glory to
whaling ; for a whale -ship was my Yale College and my
Harvard.
CHAPTER XXV
POSTSCRIPT
IN behalf of the dignity of whaling, I would fain advance
naught but substantiated facts. But after embattling his
facts, an advocate who should wholly suppress a not
unreasonable surmise, which might tell eloquently upon his
cause such an advocate, would he not be blameworthy ?
It is well known that at the coronation of kings and
queens, even modern ones, a certain curious process of
seasoning them for their functions is gone through. There
is a salt-cellar of state, so called, and there may be a castor
of state. How they use the salt, precisely who knows ?
Certain I am, however, that a king's head is solemnly
oiled at his coronation, even as a head of salad. Can it
be, though, that they anoint it with a view of making
its interior run well, as they anoint machinery ? Much
might be ruminated here, concerning the essential dignity
of this regal process, because in common life we esteem
but meanly and contemptibly a fellow who anoints his
hair, and palpably smells of that anointing. In truth, a
mature man who uses hair-oil, unless medicinally, that
man has probably got a quoggy spot in him somewhere.
As a general rule, he can't amount to much in his totality.
But the only thing to be considered here, is this what
kind of oil is used at coronations ? Certainly it cannot
be olive oil, nor macassar oil, nor castor oil, nor bear's oil,
nor train oil, nor cod-liver oil. What then can it possibly
be, but sperm oil in its unmanufactured, unpolluted
state, the sweetest of all oils ?
Think of that, ye loyal Britons ! we whalemen supply
your kings and queens with coronation stuff !
140
CHAPTER XXVI
KNIGHTS AND SQUIRES
THE chief mate of the Pequod was Starbuck, a native of
Nantucket, and a Quaker by descent. He was a long,
earnest man, and though born on an icy coast, seemed
well adapted to endure hot latitudes, his flesh being hard
as twice-baked biscuit. Transported to the Indies, his
live blood would not spoil like bottled ale. He must have
been born in some time of general drought and famine,
or upon one of those fast days for which his state is
famous. Only some thirty arid summers had he seen ;
those summers had dried up all his physical superfluous-
ness. But this, his thinness, so to speak, seemed no more
the token of wasting anxieties and cares, than it seemed
the indication of any bodily blight. It was merely the
condensation of the man. He was by no means ill-look-
ing ; quite the contrary. His pure tight skin was an
excellent fit ; and closely wrapped up in it, and embalmed
with inner health and strength, like a revivified Egyptian,
this Starbuck seemed prepared to endure for long ages
to come, and to endure always, as now ; for be it Polar
snow or torrid sun, like a patent chronometer, his interior
vitality was warranted to do well in all climates. Look-
ing into his eyes, you seemed to see there the yet lingering
images of those thousand-fold perils he had calmly con-
fronted through life. A staid, steadfast man, whose life
for the most part was a telling pantomime of action, and
not a tame chapter of sounds. Yet, for all his hardy
>briety and fortitude, there were certain qualities in
141
142 MOBY-DICK
him which at times affected, and in some cases seemed well-
nigh to overbalance all the rest. Uncommonly con-
scientious for a seaman, and endued with a deep natural
reverence, the wild watery loneliness of his life did there-
fore strongly incline him to superstition ; but to that
sort of superstition, which in some organisations seems
rather to spring, somehow, from intelligence than from
ignorance. Outward portents and inward presentiments
were his. And if at times these things bent the welded
iron of his soul, much more did his far-away domestic
memories of his young Cape wife and child tend to bend
him still more from the original ruggedness of his nature,
and open him still further to those latent influences which,
in some honest-hearted men, restrain the gush of dare-
devil daring, so often evinced by others in the more
perilous vicissitudes of the fishery. ' I will have no man
in my boat/ said Starbuck, ' who is not afraid of a whale.'
By this, he seemed to mean, not only that the most
reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the
fair estimation of the encountered peril, but that an
utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than
a coward.
' Ay, ay/ said Stubb, the second mate, ' Starbuck,
there, is as careful a man as you '11 find anywhere in this
fishery.' But we shall ere long see what that word
' careful ' precisely means when used by a man like Stubb,
or almost any other whale-hunter.
Starbuck was no crusader after perils ; in him courage
was not a sentiment ; but a thing simply useful to him,
and always at hand upon all mortally practical occasions.
Besides, he thought, perhaps, that hi this business of
whaling, courage was one of the great staple outfits of the
ship, like her beef and her bread, and not to be foolishly
wasted. Wherefore he had no fancy for lowering for
whales after sundown ; nor for persisting in fighting a
KNIGHTS AND SQUIRES 143
fish that too much persisted in fighting him. For, thought
Starbuck, I am here in this critical ocean to kill whales
for my living, and not to be killed by them for theirs ;
and that hundreds of men had been so killed Starbuck
well knew. What doom was his own father's ? Where,
in the bottomless deeps, could he find the torn limbs of
his brother ?
With memories like these in him, and, moreover, given
to a certain superstitiousness, as has been said ; the
courage of this Starbuck which could, nevertheless, still
flourish, must indeed have been extreme. But it was not
in reasonable nature that a man so organised, and with
such terrible experiences and remembrances as he had ;
it was not in nature that these things should fail in latently
engendering an element in him, which, under suitable
circumstances, would break out from its confinement,
and burn all his courage up. And brave as he might be,
it was that sort of bravery chiefly, visible in some intrepid
men, which, while generally abiding firm in the conflict
with seas, or winds, or whales, or any of the ordinary
irrational horrors of the world, yet cannot withstand
those more terrific, because more spiritual terrors, which
sometimes menace you from the concentrating brow of an
enraged and mighty man.
But were the coming narrative to reveal, in any instance,
the complete abasement of poor Starbuck's fortitude,
scarce might I have the heart to write it ; for it is a thing
most sorrowful, nay shocking, to expose the fall of valour
in the soul. Men may seem detestable as joint-stock
companies and nations ; knaves, fools, and murderers
there may be ; men may have mean and meagre aces ;
but man, hi the ideal, is so noble and so sparkling, such
a grand and glowing creature, that over any ignominious
blemish in him all his fellows should run to throw their
costliest robes. That immaculate manliness we feel
144 MOBY-DICK
within ourselves, so far within us, that it remains intact
though all the outer character seem gone, bleeds with
keenest anguish at the undraped spectacle of a valour-
ruined man. Nor can piety itself, at such a shameful
sight, completely stifle her upbraidings against the per-
mitting stars. But this august dignity I treat of, is not
the dignity of kings and robes, but that abounding dignity
which has no robed investiture. Thou shalt see it shining
in the arm that wields a pick or drives a spike ; that
democratic dignity which, on all hands, radiates without
end from God ; Himself ! The great God absolute !
The centre and circumference of all democracy ! His
omnipresence, our divine equality !
If, then, to meanest mariners, and renegades and casta-
ways, I shall hereafter ascribe high qualities, though dark ;
weave round them tragic graces ; if even the most mourn-
ful, perchance the most abased, among them all, shall at
times lift himself to the exalted mounts ; if I shall touch
that workman's arm with some ethereal light ; if I shall
spread a rainbow over his disastrous set of sun ; then
against all mortal critics bear me out in it, thou just
Spirit of Equality, which hast spread one royal mantle
of humanity over all my kind ! Bear me out in it, thou
great democratic God ! who didst not refuse to the
swart convict, Bunyan, the pale, poetic pearl ; Thou
who didst clothe with doubly hammered leaves of finest
gold, the stumped and paupered arm of old Cervantes ;
Thou who didst pick up Andrew Jackson from the pebbles ;
who didst hurl him upon a war-horse ; who didst thunder
him higher than a throne ! Thou who, in all Thy mighty,
earthly marchings, ever cullest Thy selectest champions
from the kingly commons ; bear me out in it, God !
CHAPTER XXVII
KNIGHTS AND SQUIRES
STUBB was the second mate. He was a native of Cape
Cod ; and hence, according to local usage, was called a
Cape-Cod-man. A happy-go-lucky ; neither craven nor
valiant ; taking perils as they came with an indifferent
air ; and while engaged in the most imminent crisis of
the chase, toiling away, calm and collected as a journey-
man joiner engaged for the year. Good-humoured, easy,
and careless, he presided over his whale-boat as if the
most deadly encounter were but a dinner, and his crew
all invited guests. He was as particular about the com-
fortable arrangement of his part of the boat, as an old
stage-driver is about the snugness of his box. When close
to the whale, in the very death-lock of the fight, he
handled his unpitying lance coolly and off-handedly,
as a whistling tinker his hammer. He would hum over
his old rigadig tunes while flank and flank with the most
exasperated monster. Long usage had, for this Stubb,
converted the jaws of death into an easy-chair. What
he thought of death itself, there is no telling. Whether
he ever thought of it at all, might be a question ; but, if
he ever did chance to cast his mind that way after a com-
fortable dinner, no doubt, like a good sailor, he took it to
be a sort of call of the watch to tumble aloft, and bestir
themselves there, about something which he would find
out when he obeyed the order, and not sooner.
What, perhaps, with other things, made Stubb such an
easy-going, unfearing man, so cheerily trudging off with
VOL. i. K
146 MOBY-DICK
the burden of life in a world full of grave peddlers, all
bowed to the ground with their packs ; what helped to
bring about that almost impious good-humour of his ;
that thing must have been his pipe. For, like his nose,
his short, black little pipe was one of the regular features
of his face. You would almost as soon have expected
him to turn out of his bunk without his nose as without
his pipe. He kept a whole row of pipes there ready loaded,
stuck in a rack, within easy reach of his hand ; and,
whenever he turned in, he smoked them all out in suc-
cession, lighting one from the other to the end of the
chapter ; then loading them again to be in readiness anew.
For, when Stubb dressed, instead of first putting his legs
into his trowsers, he put his pipe into his mouth.
I say this continual smoking must have been one
cause, at least, of his peculiar disposition ; for everyone
knows that this earthly air, whether ashore or afloat, is
terribly infected with the nameless miseries of the number-
less mortals who have died exhaling it ; and as in time
of the cholera, some people go about with a camphorated
handkerchief to their mouths ; so, likewise, against all
mortal tribulations, Stubb 's tobacco smoke might have
operated as a sort of disinfecting agent.
The third mate was Flask, a native of Tisbury, in
Martha's Vineyard. A short, stout, ruddy young fellow,
very pugnacious concerning whales, who somehow seemed
to think that the great leviathans had personally and
hereditarily affronted him ; and therefore it was a sort
of point of honour with him, to destroy them whenever
encountered. So utterly lost was he to all sense of
reverence for the many marvels of their majestic bulk
and mystic ways ; and so dead to anything like an appre-
hension of any possible danger from encountering them ;
that in his poor opinion, the wondrous whale was but a
species of magnified mouse, or at least water-rat, requiring
KNIGHTS AND SQUIRES 147
only a little circumvention and some small application
of time and trouble in order to kill and boil. This ignor-
ant, unconscious fearlessness of his made him a little
waggish in the matter of whales ; he followed these fish
for the fun of it ; and a three years' voyage round Cape
Horn was only a jolly joke that lasted that length of time.
As a carpenter's nails are divided into wrought nails and
cut nails ; so mankind may be similarly divided. Little
Flask was one of the wrought ones ; made to clinch tight
and last long. They called him King-Post on board of the
Pequod ; because, in form, he could be well likened to the
short, square timber known by that name in Arctic
whalers ; and which by the means of many radiating
side timbers inserted into it, served to brace the ship
against the icy concussions of those battering seas.
Now these three mates Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask
were momentous men. They it was who by universal
prescription commanded three of the Pequod' & boats as |
headsmen. In that grand order of battle in which Gap-
tain Ahab would probably marshal his forces to descend
on the whales, these three headsmen were as captains
of companies. Or, being armed with their long keen
whaling-spears, they were as a picked trio of lancers ;
even as the harpooneers were flingers of javelins.
And since in this famous fishery, each mate or heads-
man, like a Gothic knight of old, is always accompanied
by his boat-steerer or harpooneer, who in certain con-
junctures provides him with a fresh lance, when the former
one has been badly twisted, or elbowed in the assault ;
and moreover, as there generally subsists between the
two a close intimacy and friendliness ; it is therefore
but meet, that in this place we set down who the Pequod 's
harpooneers were, and to what headsman each of them
belonged.
First of all was Queequeg, whom Starbuck, the chief
148 MOBY-DICK
mate, had selected for his squire. But Queequeg is
already known.
Next was Tashtego, an unmixed Indian from Gay
Head, the most westerly promontory of Martha's Vine-
yard, where there still exists the last remnant of a village
of red men, which has long supplied the neighbouring
island of Nantucket with many of her most daring har-
pooneers. In the fishery, they usually go by the generic
name of Gay-Headers. Tashtego 's long, lean, sable hair,
his high cheek-bones, and black rounding eyes for an
Indian, Oriental in their largeness, but Antarctic in their
glittering expression all this sufficiently proclaimed him
an inheritor of the unvitiated blood of those proud warrior
hunters, who, in quest of the great New England moose,
had scoured, bow in hand, the aboriginal forests of the
main. But no longer snuffing in the trail of the wild
beasts of the woodland, Tashtego now hunted in the wake
of the great whales of the sea ; the unerring harpoon of
the son fitly replacing the infallible arrow of the sires.
To look at the tawny brawn of his lithe snaky limbs, you
would almost have credited the superstitions of some of
the earlier Puritans, and half-believed this wild Indian
to be a son of the Prince of the Powers of the Air. Tash-
tego was Stubb the second mate's squire.
Third among the harpooneers was Daggoo, a gigantic,
coal - black negro-savage, with a lion -like tread an
Ahasuerus to behold. Suspended from his ears were
two golden hoops, so large that the sailors called them
ring-bolts, and would talk of securing the topsail halyards
to them. In his youth Daggoo had voluntarily shipped
on board of a whaler, lying in a lonely bay on his native
coast. And never having been anywhere in the world
but in Africa, Nantucket, and the pagan harbours most
frequented by whalemen ; and having now led for many
years the bold life of the fishery in the ships of owners un-
I
KNIGHTS AND SQUIRES 149
commonly heedful of what manner of men they shipped ;
Daggoo retained all his barbaric virtues, and erect as a
giraffe, moved about the decks in all the pomp of six feet
five in his socks. There was a corporeal humility in
looking up at him ; and a white man standing before him
seemed a white flag come to beg truce of a fortress.
Curious to tell, this imperial negro, Ahasuerus Daggoo,
was the squire of little Flask, who looked like a chess-man
beside him. As for the residue of the Pequod'B company,
be it said, that at the present day not one in two of the
many thousand men before the mast employed in the
American whale-fishery are Americans born, though pretty
nearly all the officers are. Herein it is the same with
the American whale-fishery as with the American army
and military and merchant navies, and the engineering
forces employed in the construction of the American
canals and railroads. The same, I say, because in all
these cases the native American liberally provides the
brains, the rest of the world as generously supplying the
muscles. No small number of these whaling seamen
belong to the Azores, where the outward-bound Nan-
tucket whalers frequently touch to augment their crews
from the hardy peasants of those rocky shores. In like
manner, the Greenland whalers sailing out of Hull or
London put in at the Shetland Islands, to receive the
full complement of their crew. Upon the passage home-
ward, they drop them there again. How it is, there is
no telling, but Islanders seem to make the best whalemen.
They were nearly all Islanders in the Pequod, ' Isolatoes '
too, I call such, not acknowledging the common continent
of men, but each Isolate living on a separate continent
of his own. Yet now, federated along one keel, what a
set these Isolatoes were ! An Anacharsis Clootz deputa-
tion from all the isles of the sea, and all the ends of the
earth, accompanying Old Ahab in the Pequod to lay the
150 MOBY-DICK
world's grievances before that bar from which not very
many of them ever come back. Black Little Pip he
never did oh, no ! he went before. Poor Alabama boy !
On the grim Pequod's forecastle, ye shall ere long see him,
beating his tambourine ; prelusive of the eternal time,
when sent for, to the great quarter-deck on high, he was
bid strike in with angels, and beat his tambourine in
glory ; called a coward here, hailed a hero there !
CHAPTER XXVIII
AHAB
FOB several days after leaving Nantucket, nothing above
hatches was seen of Captain Ahab. The mates regularly
relieved each other at the watches, and for aught that
could be seen to the contrary, they seemed to be the only
commanders of the ship ; only they sometimes issued from
the cabin with orders so sudden and peremptory, that
after all it was plain they but commanded vicariously.
Yes, their supreme lord and dictator was there, though
hitherto unseen by any eyes not permitted to penetrate
into the now sacred retreat of the cabin.
Every time I ascended to the deck from my watches
below, I instantly gazed aft to mark if any strange face
were visible ; for my first vague disquietude touching
the unknown captain, now in the seclusion of the sea,
became almost a perturbation. This was strangely
heightened at times by the ragged Elijah's diabolical
incoherences uninvitingly recurring to me, with a subtle
energy I could not have before conceived of. But poorly
could I withstand them, much as in other moods I was
almost ready to smile at the solemn whimsicalities of that
outlandish prophet of the wharves. But whatever it was
of apprehensiveness or uneasiness to call it so which I
felt, yet whenever I came to look about me in the ship,
it seemed against all warranty to cherish such emotions.
For though the harpooneers, with the great body of the
crew, were a far more barbaric, heathenish, and motley
set than any of the tame merchant-ship companies which
151
152 MOBY-DICK
my previous experiences had made me acquainted with,
still I ascribed this and rightly ascribed it to the fierce
uniqueness of the very nature of that wild Scandinavian
vocation in which I had so abandonedly embarked. But
it was especially the aspect of the three chief officers of
the ship, the mates, which was most forcibly calculated
to allay these colourless misgivings, and induce confidence
and cheerfulness in every presentment of the voyage.
Three better, more likely sea-officers and men, each in
his own different way, could not readily be found, and
they were every one of them Americans ; a Nantucketer,
a Vineyarder, a Cape man. Now, it being Christmas
when the ship shot from out her harbour, for a space we
had biting Polar weather, though all the time running
away from it to the southward ; and by every degree
and minute of latitude which we sailed, gradually leaving
that merciless winter, and all its intolerable weather
behind us. It was one of those less lowering, but still
gray and gloomy enough mornings of the transition, when
with a fair wind the ship was rushing through the water
with a vindictive sort of leaping and melancholy rapidity,
that as I mounted to the deck at the call of the forenoon
watch, so soon as I levelled my glance toward the tanrail,
foreboding shivers ran over me. Reality outran appre-
hension ; .Captain Ahab stood upon his quarter-deck.
There seemed no sign of common bodily illness about
him, nor of the recovery from any. He looked like a man
cut away from the stake, when the fire has overrunningly
wasted all the limbs without consuming them, or taking
away one particle from their compacted aged robustness.
His whole high, broad form, seemed made of solid bronze,
and shaped in an unalterable mould, like Cellini's cast
Perseus. Threading its way out from among his gray
hairs, and continuing right down one side of his tawny
scorched face and neck, till it disappeared in his clothing,
AHAB 153
you saw a slender rod-like mark, lividly whitish. It
resembled that perpendicular seam sometimes made in
the straight, lofty trunk of a great tree, when the upper
lightning tearingly darts down it, and without wrenching
a single twig, peels and grooves out the bark from top to
bottom, ere running off into the soil, leaving the tree still
greenly alive, but branded. Whether that mark was born
with him, or whether it was the scar left by some desperate
wound, no one could certainly say. By some tacit con-
sent, throughout the voyage little or no allusion was made
to it, especially by the mates. But once Tashtego's
senior, an old Gay-Head Indian among the crew, super-
stitiously asserted that not till he was full forty years
old did Ahab become that way branded, and then it
came upon him, not in the fury of any mortal fray, but
in an elemental strife at sea. Yet, this wild hint seemed
inferentially negatived by what a gray Manxman in-
sinuated, an old sepulchral man, who, having never
before sailed out of Nantucket, had never ere this laid eye
upon wild Ahab. Nevertheless, the old sea-traditions,
the immemorial credulities, popularly invested this old
Manxman with preternatural powers of discernment.
So that no white sailor seriously contradicted him when
he said that if ever Captain Ahab should be tranquilly
laid out which might hardly come to pass, so he muttered
then, whoever should do that last office for the dead
would find a birth-mark on him from crown to sole.
So powerfully did the whole grim aspect of Ahab affect
me, and the livid brand which streaked it, that for the
first few moments I hardly noted that not a little of this
overbearing grimness was owing to the barbaric white
leg upon which he partly stood. It had previously come
to me that this ivory leg had at sea been fashioned from
the polished bone of the sperm whale's jaw. * Ay, he
was dismasted off Japan,' said the old Gay-Head Indian
154 MOBY-DICK
once ; ' but like his dismasted craft, he shipped another
mast without coming home for it. He has a quiver of 'em.'
I was struck with the singular posture he maintained.
Upon each side of the Pequod's quarter-deck, and pretty
close to the mizen shrouds, there was an auger-hole,
bored about half an inch or so, into the plank. His bone
leg steadied in that hole ; one arm elevated, and holding
by a shroud ; Captain Ahab stood erect, looking straight
out beyond the ship's ever-pitching prow. There was an
infinity of firmest fortitude, a determinate, unsurrender-
able wilfulness, in the fixed and fearless, forward dedi-
cation of that glance. Not a word he spoke ; nor did
his officers say aught to him ; though by all their minutest
gestures and expressions, they plainly showed the uneasy,
if not painful, consciousness of being under a troubled
master-eye. And not only that, but moody stricken
Ahab stood before them with a crucifixion in his face ;
in all the nameless regal overbearing dignity of some
mighty woe.
Ere long, from his first visit in the air, he withdrew into
his cabin. But after that morning, he was every day
visible to the crew ; either standing in his pivot -hole,
or seated upon an ivory stool he had ; or heavily walking
the deck. As the sky grew less gloomy ; indeed, began
to grow a little genial, he became still less and less a recluse ;
as if, when the ship had sailed from home, nothing but
the dead wintry bleakness of the sea had then kept him
so secluded. And, by and by, it came to pass, that he
was almost continually in the air ; but, as yet, for all that
he said, or perceptibly did, on the at last sunny deck, he
seemed as unnecessary there as another mast. But the
Pequod was only making a passage now ; not regularly
cruising ; nearly all whaling preparatives needing super-
vision the mates were fully competent to, so that there
was little or nothing, out of himself, to employ or excite
AHAB 155
Ahab now ; and thus chase away, for that one interval,
the clouds that layer upon layer were piled upon his
brow, as ever all clouds choose the loftiest peaks to pile
themselves upon.
Nevertheless, ere long, the warm, warbling persuasive-
ness of the pleasant, holiday weather we came to, seemed
gradually to charm him from his mood. For, as when the
red-cheeked, dancing girls, April and May, trip home to
the wintry, misanthropic woods ; even the barest,
ruggedest, most thunder-cloven old oak will at least send
forth some few green sprouts, to welcome such glad-
hearted visitants ; so Ahab did, in the end, a little
respond to the playful allurings of that girlish air. More
than once did he put forth the faint blossom of a look,
which, in any other man, would have soon flowered out
in a smile.
CHAPTER XXIX
TO HIM, STUBB
SOME days elapsed, and ice and icebergs all astern, the
Pequod now went rolling through the bright Quito spring,
which, at sea, almost perpetually reigns on the threshold
of the eternal August of the Tropic. The warmly cool,
clear, ringing, perfumed, overflowing, redundant days,
were as crystal goblets of Persian sherbet, heaped up
flaked up, with rose-water snow. The starred and stately
nights seemed haughty dames in jewelled velvets, nursing
at home in lonely pride, the memory of their absent
conquering Earls, the golden helmeted suns ! For
sleeping man, 'twas hard to choose between such winsome
days and such seducing nights. But all the witcheries
of that unwaning weather did not merely lend new spells
and potencies to the outward world. Inward they
turned upon the soul, especially when the still mild hours
of eve came on ; then, memory shot her crystals as the
clear ice most forms of noiseless twilights. And all these
subtle agencies, more and more they wrought on Ahab's
texture.
Old age is always wakeful ; as if, the longer linked with
life, the less man has to do with aught that looks like
death. Among sea-commanders, the old graybeards will
oftenest leave their berths to visit the night-cloaked deck.
It was so with Ahab ; only that now, of late, he seemed
so much to live in the open air, that truly speaking, his
visits were more to the cabin, than from the cabin to the
planks. ' It feels like going down into one's tomb,'
156
ENTER AHAB 157
he would mutter to himself, ' for an old captain like me
to be descending this narrow scuttle, to go to my grave-
dug berth/
So, almost every twenty-four hours, when the watches
of the night were set, and the band on deck sentinelled
the slumbers of the band below ; and when if a rope was
to be hauled upon the forecastle, the sailors flung it not
rudely down, as by day, but with some cautiousness
dropped it to its place, for fear of disturbing their slumber-
ing shipmates ; when this sort of steady quietude would
begin to prevail, habitually, the silent steersman would
watch the cabin-scuttle ; and ere long the old man would
emerge, gripping at the iron banister, to help his crippled
way. Some considerating touch of humanity was in
him ; for at times like these, he usually abstained from
patrolling the quarter-deck ; because to his wearied
mates, seeking repose within six inches of his ivory heel,
such would have been the reverberating crack and din
of that bony step, that their dreams would have been of
the crunching teeth of sharks. But once, the mood was
on him too deep for common regardings ; and as with
heavy, lumber-like pace he was measuring the ship from
tanrail to mainmast, Stubb, the odd second mate, came
up from below, and with a certain unassured, deprecating
humorousness, hinted that if Captain Ahab was pleased
to walk the planks, then, no one could say nay ; but
there might be some way of muffling the noise ; hinting
something indistinctly and hesitatingly about a globe
of tow, and the insertion into it, of the ivory heel. Ah !
Stubb, thou didst not know Ahab then.
' Am I a cannon-ball, Stubb/ said Ahab, ' that thou
wouldst wad me that fashion ? But go thy ways ; I had
forgot. Below to thy nightly grave ; where such as ye
sleep between shrouds, to use ye to the filling one at last.
Down, dog, and kennel ! '
158 MOBY-DICK
{Starting at the unforeseen concluding exclamation of
the so suddenly scornful old man, Stubb was speechless
a moment ; then said excitedly, ' I am not used to be
spoken to that way, sir ; I do but less than half like it,
sir.'
' Avast ! ' gritted Ahab between his set teeth, and
violently moving away, as if to avoid some passionate
temptation.
' No, sir ; not yet,' said Stubb, emboldened. ' I will
not tamely be called a dog, sir.'
' Then be called ten times a donkey, and a mule, and
an ass, and begone, or I 11 clear the world of thee ! '
As he said this, Ahab advanced upon him with such
overbearing terrors in his aspect, that Stubb involuntarily
retreated.
' I was never served so before without giving a hard blow
for it,' muttered Stubb, as he found himself descending
the cabin-scuttle. ' It 's very queer. Stop, Stubb ;
somehow, now, I don't well know whether to go back and
strike him, or what 's that ? down here on my knees
and pray for him ? Yes, that was the thought coming
up in me ; but it would be the first time I ever did pray.
It 's queer ; very queer ; and he 's queer too ; ay, take
him fore and aft, he 's about the queerest old man Stubb
ever sailed with. How he flashed at me ! his eyes like
powder-pans ! is he mad ? Anyway there 's something
on his mind, as sure as there must be something on a deck
when it cracks. He ain't in his bed now, either, more
than three hours out of the twenty-four ; and he don't
sleep then. Didn't that Dough-Boy, the steward, tell
me that of a morning he always finds the old man's ham-
mock clothes all rumpled and tumbled, and the sheets
down at the foot, and the coverlid almost tied into knots,
and the pillow a sort of frightful hot, as though a baked
brick had been on it ? A hot old man ! I guess he 's
ENTER AHAB 159
got what some folks ashore call a conscience ; it 's a kind
of Tic-Dolly-row they say worse nor a toothache. Well,
well ; I don't know what it is, but the Lord keep me from
catching it. He 's full of riddles ; I wonder what he goes
into the after-hold for, every night, as Dough -Boy tells me
he suspects ; what 's that for, I should like to know ?
Who 's made appointments with him in the hold ? Ain't
that queer, now ? But there 's no telling, it 's the old
game. Here goes for a snooze. Damn me, it 's worth a
fellow's while to be born into the world, if only to fall right
asleep. And now that I think of it, that 's about the first
thing babies do, and that 's a sort of queer, too. Damn
me, but all things are queer, come to think of 'em. But
that 's against my principles. Think not, is my eleventh,
commandment ; and sleep when you can, is my twelfth.
"feo here goes again. But how 's that ? didn't he call me
a dog ? blazes ! he called me ten times a donkey, and
piled a lot of jackasses on top of that \ He might as well
have kicked me, and done with it. Maybe he did kick me,
and I didn't observe it, I was so taken all aback with his
brow, somehow. It flashed like a bleached bone. What
the devil 's the matter with me ? I don't stand right
on my legs. Coming afoul of that old man has a sort of
turned me wrong side out. By the Lord, I must have
been dreaming, though How 1 how ? how ? but the
only way 's to stash it ; so here goes to hammock again ;
and in the morning, I '11 see how this plaguy juggling
thinks over by daylight.'
CHAPTER XXX
THE PIPE
WHEN Stubb had departed, Ahab stood for a while leaning
over the bulwarks ; and then, as had been usual with him
of late, calling a sailor of the watch, he sent him below for
his ivory stool, and also his pipe. Lighting the pipe at
the binnacle lamp and planting the stool on the weather-
side of the deck, he sat and smoked.
In old Norse times, the thrones of the sea-loving Danish
kings were fabricated, saith tradition, of the tusks of the
narwhale. How could one look at Ahab then, seated on
that tripod of bones, without bethinking him of the
royalty it symbolised ? For a khan of the plank, and
a king of the sea, and a great lord of leviathans was Ahab.
Some moments passed, during which the thick vapour
came from his mouth in quick and constant puffs, which
blew back again into his face. ' How now, ' he soliloquised
at last, withdrawing the tube, 'this smoking no longer
soothes. Oh, my pipe ! hard must it go with me if thy
charm be gone ! Here have I been unconsciously toiling,
not pleasuring, ay, and ignorantly smoking to windward
all the while ; to windward, and with such nervous whiffs,
as if, like the dying whale, my final jets were the strongest
and fullest of trouble. What business have I with this
pipe ? This thing that is meant for sereneness, to send up
mild white vapours among mild white hairs, not among
torn iron -gray locks like mine. I '11 smoke no more
He tossed the still lighted pipe into the sea. The fire
hissed in the waves ; the same instant the ship shot by
the bubble the sinking pipe made. With slouched hat,
Ahab lurchingly paced the planks.
160
CHAPTER XXXI
QUEEN MAB
NEXT morning Stubb accosted Flask.
' Such a queer dream, King-Post, I never had. You
know the old man's ivory leg, well I dreamed he kicked
me with it ; and when I tried to kick back, upon my soul,
my little man, I kicked my leg right off ! And then,
presto ! Ahab seemed a pyramid, and I, like a blazing
fool, kept kicking at it. But what was still more curious,
Flask you know how curious all dreams are through
all this rage that I was in, I somehow seemed to be think-
ing to myself, that after all, it was not much of an insult,
that kick from Ahab. " Why," thinks I, " what 's the
row ? It 's not a real leg, only a false leg." And there 's
a mighty difference between a living thump and a dead
thump. That 's what makes a blow from the hand,
Flask, fifty times more savage to bear than a blow from
a cane. The living member that makes the living insult,
my little man. And thinks I to myself afl the wnile,
mind, while I was stubbing my silly toes against that
cursed pyramid so confoundedly contradictory was it
all, all the while, I say, I was thinking to myself, "What 's
his leg now, but a cane a whalebone cane. Yes,"
thinks I, "it was only a playful cudgelling in fact, only
a whaleboning that he gave me not a base kick. Be-
sides," thinks I, " look at it once ; why, the end of it
the foot part what a small sort of end it is ; whereas, if
a broad-footed farmer kicked me, there 's a devilish broad
insult. But this insult is whittled down to a point only."
VOL. I. L
162 MOBY-DICK
But now comes the greatest joke of the dream, Flask.
While I was battering away at the pyramid, a sort of
badger-haired old merman, with a hump on his back,
takes me by the shoulders, and slews me round. " What
are you 'bout ? " says he. Slid ! man, but I was
frightened. Such a phiz ! But, somehow, next moment
I was over the fright. " What am I about ? " says I at
last. " And what business is that of yours, I should like
to know, Mr. Humpback ? Do you want a kick ? " By
the lord, Flask, I had no sooner said that, than he turned
round his stern to me, bent over, and dragging up a lot
of seaweed he had for a clout what do you think I saw ?
why, thunder alive, man, his stern was stuck full of
marling-spikes, with the points out. Says I, on second
thoughts, " I guess I won't kick you, old fellow." " Wise
Stubb," said he, " wise Stubb " ; and kept muttering
it all the time, a sort of eating of his own gums like a
chimney hag. Seeing he wasn't going to stop saying
over his " wise Stubb, wise Stubb," I thought I might as
well fall to kicking the pyramid again. But I had only
just lifted my foot for it, when he roared out, " Stop that
kicking ! " " Halloa," says I, " what 's the matter now,
old fellow ? " " Look ye here," says he ; " let 's argue
the insult. Captain Ahab kicked ye, didn't he ? " " Yes,
he did," says I "right here it was." "Very good,"
says he " he used his ivory leg, didn't he ? " " Yes, he
did," says I. " WeU, then," says he, " wise Stubb, what
have you to complain of ? Didn't he kick with right
goodwill ? it wasn't a common pitch-pine leg he kicked
with, was it ? No, you were kicked by a great man, and
with a beautiful ivory leg, Stubb. It 's an honour ; I
consider it an honour. Listen, wise Stubb. In old
England the greatest lords think it great glory to be
slapped by a queen, and made garter-knights of ; but,
be your boast, Stubb, that ye were kicked by old Ahab,
QUEEN MAB 163
and made a wise man of. Remember what I say ; be
kicked by him ; account his kicks honours ; and on no
account kick back ; for you can't help yourself, wise
Stubb. Don't you see that pyramid ? " With that, he
all of a sudden seemed somehow, in some queer fashion,
to swim off into the air. I snored ; rolled over ; and there
I was in my hammock ! Now, what do you think of that
dream, Flask ? '
4 1 don't know ; it seems a sort of foolish to me,
though.'
4 Maybe ; maybe. But it 's made a wise man of me,
Flask. D' ye see Ahab standing there, sideways looking
over the stern ? Well, the best thing you can do, Flask,
is to let that old man alone ; never speak to him, whatever
he says. Halloa ! What 's that he shouts ? Hark ! '
' Mast-head, there ! Look sharp, all of ye ! There are
whales hereabouts ! If ye see a white one, split your
lungs for him ! '
' What do you think of that now, Flask ? ain't there a
small drop of something queer about that, eh ? A white
whale did ye mark that, man ? Look ye there 's
something special in the wind. Stand by for it, Flask.
Ahab has that that 's bloody on his mind. But, mum ;
he comes this way.'
CHAPTER XXXII
CETOLOGY
ALREADY we are boldly launched upon the deep ; but
soon we shall be lost in its unshored, harbourless immen-
sities. Ere that come to pass ; ere the Pequod'a weedy
hull rolls side by side with the barnacled hulls of the
leviathan ; at the outset it is but well to attend to a
matter almost indispensable to a thorough appreciative
understanding of the more special leviathanic revelations
and allusions of all sorts which are to follow.
It is some systematised exhibition of the whale in his
broad genera, that I would now fain put before you. Yet
is it no easy task. The classification of the constituents
of a chaos, nothing less is here essayed. Listen to what
the best and latest authorities have laid down.
' No branch of Zoology is so much involved as that which
is entitled Cetology,' says Captain Scoresby, A.D. 1820.
' It is not my intention, were it in my power, to enter
into the inquiry as to the true method of dividing the
cetacea into groups and families. * * * Utter confusion
exists among the historians of this animal ' (Sperm
whale), says Surgeon Beale, A.D. 1839.
' Unfitness to pursue our research in the unfathomable
waters.' ' Impenetrable veil covering our knowledge of
the cetacea.' ' A field strewn with thorns.' ' All these
incomplete indications but serve to torture us naturalists.'
Thus speak of the whale, the great Cuvier, and John
Hunter, and Lesson, those lights of zoology and anatomy.
Nevertheless, though of real knowledge there be little,
164
CETOLOGY 165
yet of books there are a plenty ; and so in some small
degree, with Cetology, or the science of whales. Many are
the men, small and great, old and new, landsmen and sea-
men, who have at large or in little, written of the whale.
Run over a few : The Authors of the Bible ; Aristotle ;
Pliny ; Aldrovandi ; Sir Thomas Browne ; Gesner ;
Ray ; Linnaeus ; Rondeletius ; Willoughby ; Green ;
Artedi ; Sibbald ; Brisson ; Marten ; Lacepede ; Bonne-
terre ; Desmarest ; Baron Cuvier ; Frederick Cuvier ;
John Hunter ; Owen ; Scoresby ; Beale ; Bennett ; J.
Ross Browne ; the Author of Miriam Coffin ; Olmstead ;
and the Rev. T. Cheever. But to what ultimate general-
ising purpose all these have written, the above-cited
extracts will show.
Of the names in this list of whale authors, only those
following Owen ever saw living whales ; and but one of
them was a real professional harpooneer and whaleman.
I mean Captain Scoresby. On the separate subject of
the Greenland or Right whale, he is the best existing
authority. But Scoresby knew nothing and says nothing
of the great Sperm whale, compared with which the Green-
land whale is almost unworthy mentioning. And here
be it said, that the Greenland whale is an usurper upon
the throne of the seas. He is not even by any means the
largest of the whales. Yet, owing to the long priority
of his claims, and the profound ignorance which, till some
seventy years back, invested the then fabulous or utterly
unknown Sperm whale, and which ignorance to this
present day still reigns in all but some few scientific
retreats and whale -ports ; this usurpation has been every
way complete. Reference to nearly all the leviathanic
allusions in the great poets of past days, will satisfy you
that the Greenland whale, without one rival, was to them
the monarch of the seas. But the time has at last come
for a new proclamation. This is Charing Cross ; hear ye !
166 MOBY-DICK
good people all, the Greenland whale is deposed, the
great Sperm whale now reigneth !
There are only two books in being which at all pretend
to put the living Sperm whale before you, and at the same
time, in the remotest degree succeed in the attempt.
Those books are Beale's and Bennett's ; both in their
time surgeons to the English South -Sea whale -ships, and
both exact and reliable men. The original matter
touching the Sperm whale to be found in their volumes is
necessarily small ; but so far as it goes, it is of excellent
quality, though mostly confined to scientific description.
As yet, however, the Sperm whale, scientific or poetic,
lives not complete in any literature. Far above all other
hunted whales, his is an unwritten life.
Now the various species of whales need some sort of
popular comprehensive classification, if only an easy
outline one for the present, hereafter to be filled in all its
departments by subsequent labourers. As no better
man advances to take this matter in hand, I hereupon
offer my own poor endeavours. I promise nothing
complete ; because any human thing supposed to be
complete, must for that very reason infallibly be faulty.
I shall not pretend to a minute anatomical description of
the various species, or in this place at least to much of
any description. My object here is simply to project the
draught of a systematisation of Cetology. I am the
architect, not the builder.
But it is a ponderous task ; no ordinary letter-sorter
in the Post Office is equal to it. To grope down into the
bottom of the sea after them ; to have one's hands
among the unspeakable foundations, ribs, and very pelvis
of the world ; this is a fearful thing. What am I that I
should essay to hook the nose of this leviathan ! The
awful tauntings in Job might well appal me. ' Will he
(the leviathan) make a covenant with thee ? Behold the
CETOLOGY 167
hope of him is vain ! ' But I have swam through libraries
and sailed through oceans ; I have had to do with whales
with these visible hands ; I am in earnest ; and I will
try. There are some preliminaries to settle.
First : The uncertain, unsettled condition of this
science of Cetology is in the very vestibule attested by
the fact, that in some quarters it still remains a moot point
whether a whale be a fish. In his System of Nature,
A.D. 1776, Linnaeus declares, ' I hereby separate the whales
from the fish. 5 But of my own knowledge, I know that
down to the year 1850, sharks and shad, ale wives and
herring, against Linnaeus 's express edict, were still found
dividing the possession of the same seas with the leviathan.
The grounds upon which Linnaeus would fain have
banished the whales from the waters, he states as follows :
' On account of their warm bilocular heart, their lungs,
their movable eyelids, their hollow ears, penem intrantem
feminam mammis lactantem,' and finally, ' ex lege naturae
jure meritoque.' I submitted all this to my friends
Simeon Macey and Charley Coffin, of Nantucket, both
messmates of mine in a certain voyage, and they united
in the opinion that the reasons set forth were altogether
insufficient . Charley profanely hinted they were humbug .
Be it known that, waiving all argument, I take the good
old-fashioned ground that the whale is a fish, and call
upon holy Jonah to back me. This fundamental thing
settled, the next point is, in what internal respect does
the whale differ from other fish. Above, Linnaeus has
given you those items. But in brief, they are those :
lungs and warm blood ; whereas, all other fish are lung-
less and cold-blooded.
Next : how shall we define the whale, by his obvious
externals, so as conspicuously to label him for all time to
come ? To be short, then, a whale is a spouting fish with
a horizontal tail. There you have him. However con-
168 MOBY-DICK
traded, that definition is the result of expanded medita-
tion. A walrus spouts much like a whale, but the walrus
is not a fish, because he is amphibious. But the last term
of the definition is still more cogent, as coupled with the
first. Almost any one must have noticed that all the
fish familiar to landsmen have not a flat, but a vertical,
or up-and-down tail. Whereas, among spouting fish the
tail, though it may be similarly shaped, invariably assumes
a horizontal position.
By the above definition of what a whale is, I do by no
means exclude from the leviathanic brotherhood any sea-
creature hitherto identified with the whale by the best-
informed Nantucketers ; nor, on the other hand, link
with it any fish hitherto authoritatively regarded as alien. 1
Hence, all the smaller, spouting, and horizontal-tailed fish
must be included in this ground-plan of Cetology. Now,
then, come the grand divisions of the entire whale host.
First : According to magnitude I divide the whales into
three primary BOOKS (subdivisible into CHAPTERS), and
these shall comprehend them all, both small and large.
I. The FOLIO WHALE ; II. the OCTAVO WHALE ;
III. the DUODECIMO WHALE.
As the type of the FOLIO I present the Sperm Whale ;
of the OCTAVO, the Grampus ; of the DUODECIMO, the
Porpoise.
FOLIOS. Among these I here include the following
chapters : I. the Sperm Whale ; II. the Right Whale ;
III. the Fin-lack Whale ; IV. the Hump-backed Whale \
V. the Razor-back Whale ; VI. the Sulphur-bottom Whale.
BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER I. (Sperm Whale). This
1 I am aware that down to the present time, the fish styled Lamatins
and Dugongs (Pig-fish and Sow-fish of the Coffins of Nantucket) are
included by many naturalists among the whales. But as these pig-fish
are a nosy, contemptible set, mostly lurking in the mouths of rivers, and
feeding on wet hay, and especially as they do not spout, I deny their
credentials as whales ; and have presented them with their passports to
quit the Kingdom of Cetology.
CETOLOGY 169
whale, among the English of old vaguely known as the
Trumpa whale, and the Physeter whale, and the Anvil-
headed whale, is the present Cachalot of the French, and
the Pottsfisch of the Germans, and the Macrocephalus
of the Long Words. He is, without doubt, the largest
inhabitant of the globe ; the most formidable of all
whales to encounter ; the most majestic in aspect ; and
lastly, by far the most valuable in commerce ; he being
the only creature from which that valuable substance,
spermaceti, is obtained. All his peculiarities will, in
many other places, be enlarged upon. It is chiefly with
his name that I now have to do. Philologically con-
sidered, it is absurd. Some centuries ago, when the
Sperm whale was almost wholly unknown in his own
proper individuality, and when his oil was only accident-
ally obtained from the stranded fish ; in those days
spermaceti, it would seem, was popularly supposed to be
derived from a creature identical with the one then known
in England as the Greenland or Right whale. It was
the idea also, that this same spermaceti was that quicken-
ing humour of the Greenland whale which the first
syllable of the word literally expresses. In those times,
also, spermaceti was exceedingly scarce, not being used
for light, but only as an ointment and medicament. It
was only to be had from the druggists as you nowadays
buy an ounce of rhubarb. When, as I opine, in the course
of time, the true nature of spermaceti became known, its
original name was still retained by the dealers ; no doubt
to enhance its value by a notion so strangely significant
of its scarcity. And so the appellation must at last have
come to be bestowed upon the whale from which this
spermaceti was really derived.
BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER II. (Right Whale). In one
respect this is the most venerable of the leviathans, being
the one first regularly hunted by man. It yields the
170 MOBY-DICK
article commonly known as whalebone or baleen ; and
the oil specially known as ' whale oil,' an inferior article
in commerce. Among the fishermen, he is indiscrimin-
ately designated by all the following titles : The Whale ;
the Greenland Whale ; the Black Whale ; the Great
Whale ; the True Whale ; the Right Whale. There is a
deal of obscurity concerning the identity of the species
thus multitudinously baptized. What then is the whale,
which I include in the second species of my Folios ? It is
the Great Mysticetus of the English naturalists ; the
Greenland Whale of the English whalemen ; the Baleine
Ordinaire of the French whalemen ; the Growlands Wal-
fisch of the Swedes. It is the whale which for more than
two centuries past has been hunted by the Dutch and
English in the Arctic seas ; it is the whale which the
American fishermen have long pursued in the Indian
Ocean, on the Brazil Banks, on the Nor '-West Coast, and
various other parts of the world, designated by them
Right Whale Cruising-Grounds.
Some pretend to see a difference between the Greenland
whale of the English and the Right whale of the Ameri-
cans. But they precisely agree in all their grand features ;
nor has there yet been presented a single determinate
fact upon which to ground a radical distinction. It is
by endless subdivisions based upon the most inconclusive
differences, that some departments of natural history
become so repellingly intricate. The Right whale will
be elsewhere treated of at some length, with reference to
elucidating the Sperm whale.
BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER III. (Fin-back). Under
this head I reckon a monster which, by the various names
of Fin-back, Tall-spout, and Long-John, has been seen
almost in every sea and is commonly the whale whose
distant jet is so often descried by passengers crossing the
Atlantic, in the New York packet -tracks. In the length
CETOLOGY 171
he attains, and in his baleen, the Fin-back resembles the
Right whale, but is of a less portly girth, and a lighter
colour, approaching to olive. His great lips present a
cable-like aspect, formed by the intertwisting, slanting
folds of large wrinkles. His grand distinguishing feature,
the fin, from which he derives his name, is often a con-
spicuous object. This fin is some three or four feet long,
growing vertically from the hinder part of the back, of
an angular shape, and with a very sharp-pointed end.
Even if not the slightest other part of the creature be
visible, this isolated fin will, at times, be seen plainly
projecting from the surface. When the sea is moderately
calm, and slightly marked with spherical ripples, and this
gnomon-like fin stands up and casts shadows upon the
wrinkled surface, it may well be supposed that the watery
circle surrounding it somewhat resembles a dial, with its
style and wavy hour-lines graved on it. On that Ahaz-
dial the shadow often goes back. The Fin-back is not
gregarious. He seems a whale-hater, as some men are
man-haters. Very shy ; always going solitary ; unex-
pectedly rising to the surface in the remotest and most
sullen waters ; his straight and single lofty jet rising like
a tall misanthropic spear upon a barren plain ; gifted with
such wondrous power and velocity in swimming, as to
defy all present pursuit from man ; this leviathan seems
the banished and unconquerable Cain of his race, bearing
for his mark that style upon his back. From having the
baleen in his mouth, the Fin-back is sometimes included
with the Right whale, among a theoretic species denomin-
ated Whalebone whales, that is, whales with baleen. Of
these so-called Whalebone whales, there would seem to be
several varieties, most of which, however, are little known.
Broad-nosed whales and Beaked whales ; Pike -headed
whales ; Bunched whales ; Under- jawed whales and
Rostrated whales, are the fishermen's names for a few sorts.
172 MOBY-DICK
In connection with this appellative of ' Whalebone
whales/ it is of great importance to mention, that how-
ever such a nomenclature may be convenient in facilitat-
ing allusions to some kind of whales, yet it is in vain to
attempt a clear classification of the leviathan, founded
upon either his baleen, or hump, or fin, or teeth ; not-
withstanding that those marked parts or features very
obviously seem better adapted to afford the basis for a
regular system of Cetology than any other detached
bodily distinctions, which the whale, in his kinds, presents.
How then ? The baleen, hump, back-fin, and teeth ;
these are things whose peculiarities are indiscriminately
dispersed among all sorts of whales, without any regard
to what may be the nature of their structure in other and
more essential particulars. Thus, the Sperm whale and
the Hump-backed whale, each has a hump ; but there
the similitude ceases. Then, this same Hump-backed
whale and the Greenland whale, each of these has baleen ;
but there again the similitude ceases. And it is just the
same with the other parts above mentioned. In various
sorts of whales, they form such irregular combinations ;
or, in the case of any one of them detached, such an
irregular isolation ; as utterly to defy all general methodis-
ation formed upon such a basis. On this rock every one
of the whale -naturalists has split.
But it may possibly be conceived that, in the internal
parts of the whale, in his anatomy there, at least, we
shall be able to hit the right classification. Nay : what
thing, for example, is there in the Greenland whale's
anatomy more striking than his baleen ? Yet we have
seen that by his baleen it is impossible correctly to classify
the Greenland whale. And if you descend into the bowels
of the various leviathans, why there you will not find
distinctions a fiftieth part as available to the systematiser
as those external ones already enumerated. What then
CETOLOGY 173
remains ? nothing but to take hold of the whales bodily,
in their entire liberal volume, and boldly sort them that
way. And this is the Bibliographical system here adopted ;
and it is the only one that can possibly succeed, for it
alone is practicable. To proceed.
BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER IV. (Hump-back). This
whale is often seen on the northern American coast. He
has been frequently captured there, and towed into
harbour. He has a great pack on him like a peddler ; or
you might call him the Elephant and Castle whale. At
any rate, the popular name for him does not sufficiently
distinguish him, since the Sperm whale also has a hump,
though a smaller one. His oil is not very valuable. He
has baleen. He is the most gamesome and light-hearted
of all the whales, making more gay foam and white water
generally than any other of them.
BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER V. (Razor-back). Of this
whale little is known but his name. I have seen him at a
distance off Cape Horn. Of a retiring nature, he eludes
both hunters and philosophers. Though no coward, he
has never yet shown any part of him but his back, which
rises in a long sharp ridge. Let him go. I know little
more of him, nor does anybody else.
BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER VI. (Sulphur-bottom).
Another retiring gentleman, with a brimstone belly,
doubtless got by scraping along the Tartarian tiles in
some of his profounder divings. He is seldom seen ; at
least I have never seen him except in the remoter Southern
seas, and then always at too great a distance to study his
countenance. He is never chased ; he would run away
with rope -walks of line. Prodigies are told of him.
Adieu, Sulphur-bottom ! I can say nothing more that is
true of ye, nor can the oldest Nantucketer.
Thus ends BOOK I. (Folio), and now begins BOOK II,
(Octavo).
174 MOBY-DICK
OCTAVOS. 1 These embrace the whales of middling
magnitude, among which at present may be numbered :
I. the Grampus ; II. the Black Fish ; III. the Narwhale ;
IV. the Killer ; V. the Thrasher.
BOOK II. (Octavo), CHAPTER I. (Grampus). Though
this fish, whose loud sonorous breathing, or rather blowing,
has furnished a proverb to landsmen, is so well known
a denizen of the deep, yet is he not popularly classed
among whales. But possessing all the grand distinctive
features of the leviathan, most naturalists have recog-
nised him for one. He is of moderate octavo size, varying
from fifteen to twenty-five feet in length, and of corre-
sponding dimensions round the waist. He swims in
herds ; he is never regularly hunted, though his oil is
considerable in quantity, and pretty good for light. By
some fishermen his approach is regarded as premonitory
of the advance of the great Sperm whale.
BOOK II. (Octavo), CHAPTER II. (Black Fish). I give
the popular fishermen's names for all these fish, for gener-
ally they are the best. Where any name happens to be
vague or inexpressive, I shall say so, and suggest another.
I do so now, touching the Black Fish, so called, because
blackness is the rule among almost all whales. So, call
him the Hyena whale, if you please. His voracity is well
known, and from the circumstance that the inner angles
of his lips are curved upward, he carries an everlasting
Mephistophelean grin on his face. This whale averages
some sixteen or eighteen feet in length. He is found in
almost all latitudes. He has a peculiar way of showing
his dorsal hooked fin in swimming, which looks something
like a Roman nose. When not more profitably employed,
1 Why this book of whales is not denominated the Quarto is very plain.
Because, while the whales of this order, though smaller than those of the
former order, nevertheless retain a proportionate likeness to them in figure,
yet the bookbinder's Quarto volume in its diminished form does not
preserve the shape of the Folio volume, but the Octavo volume does.
CETOLOGY 175
the Sperm-whale hunters sometimes capture the Hyena
whale, to keep up the supply of cheap oil for domestic
employment as some frugal housekeepers, in the absence
of company, and quite alone by themselves, burn un-
savoury tallow instead of odorous wax. Though their
blubber is very thin, some of these whales will yield you
upward of thirty gallons of oil.
BOOK II. (Octavo), CHAPTER III. (Narwhale), that is,
Nostril Whale. Another instance of a curiously named
whale, so named I suppose from his peculiar horn being
originally mistaken for a peaked nose. The creature is
some sixteen feet in length, while its horn averages five
feet, though some exceed ten, and even attain to fifteen
feet. Strictly speaking, this horn is but a lengthened
tusk, growing out from the jaw in a line a little depressed
from the horizontal. But it is only found on the sinister
side, which has an ill effect, giving its owner something
analogous to the aspect of a clumsy left-handed man.
What precise purpose this ivory horn or lance answers, it
would be hard to say. It does not seem to be used like
the blade of the sword-fish and bill-fish ; though some
sailors tell me that the Narwhale employs it for a rake
in turning over the bottom of the sea for food. Charley
Coffin said it was used for an ice-piercer ; for the Nar-
whale, rising to the surface of the Polar Sea, and finding
it sheeted with ice, thrusts his horn up, and so breaks
through. But you cannot prove either of these surmises
to be correct. My own opinion is, that however this one-
sided horn may really be used by the Narwhale however
that may be it would certainly be very convenient to
him for a folder in reading pamphlets. The Narwhale
I have heard called the Tusked whale, the Horned whale,
and the Unicorn whale. He is certainly a curious
example of the Unicornism to be found in almost every
kingdom of animated nature. From certain cloistered
176 MOBY-DICK
old authors I have gathered that this same sea-unicorn's
horn was in ancient days regarded as the great antidote
against poison, and as such, preparations of it brought
immense prices. It was also distilled to a volatile salts
for fainting ladies, the same way that the horns of the
male deer are manufactured into hartshorn. Originally
it was in itself accounted an object of great curiosity.
Black Letter tells me that Sir Martin Frobisher on his
return from that voyage, when Queen Bess did gallantly
wave her jewelled hand to him from a window of Green-
wich Palace, as his bold ship sailed down the Thames ;
' when Sir Martin returned from that voyage,' saith Black
Letter, ' on bended knees he presented to her highness
a prodigious long horn of the Narwhale, which for a long
period after hung in the castle at Windsor.' An Irish
author avers that the Earl of Leicester, on bended knees,
did likewise present to her highness another horn, per-
taining to a land-beast of the unicorn nature.
The Narwhale has a very picturesque, leopard-like look,
being of a milk-white ground colour, dotted with round
and oblong spots of black. His oil is very superior, clear
and fine ; but there is little of it, and he is seldom hunted.
He is mostly found in the circumpolar seas.
BOOK II. (Octavo), CHAPTER IV. (Killer). Of this
whale little is precisely known to the Nantucketer, and
nothing at all to the professed naturalist. From what I
have seen of him at a distance, I should say that he was
about the bigness of a grampus. He is very savage a
sort of Feegee fish. He sometimes takes the great Folio
whale by the lip, and hangs there like a leech, till the
mighty brute is worried to death. The Killer is never
hunted. I never heard what sort of oil he has. Excep-
tion might be taken to the name bestowed upon this whale,
on the ground of its indistinctness. For we are all killers,
on land and on sea ; Bonapartes and Sharks included.
CETOLOGY 177
BOOK II. (Octavo), CHAPTER V. (Thrasher). This
gentleman is famous for his tail, which he uses for a
ferule in thrashing his foes. He mounts the Folio
whale's back, and as he swims, he works his passage by
flogging him ; as some schoolmasters get along in the
world by a similar process. Still less is known of the
Thrasher than of the Killer. Both are outlaws, even in
the lawless seas.
Thus ends BOOK II. (Octavo), and begins BOOK III.
(Duodecimo).
DUODECIMOS. These include the smaller whales:
I. the Huzza Porpoise ; II. the Algerine Porpoise ; III.
the Mealy-mouthed Porpoise.
To those who have not chanced specially to study the
subject, it may possibly seem strange, that fishes not
commonly exceeding four or five feet should be marshalled
among WHALES a word which, in the popular sense,
always conveys an idea of hugeness. But the creatures
set down above as Duodecimos are infallibly whales, by
the terms of my definition of what a whale is i.e. a
spouting fish, with a horizontal tail.
BOOK III. (Duodecimo), CHAPTER I. (Huzza Porpoise).
This is the common porpoise found almost all over the
globe. The name is of my own bestowal ; for there are
more than one sort of porpoises, and something must be
done to distinguish them. I call him thus, because he
always swims in hilarious shoals, which upon the broad
sea keep tossing themselves to heaven like caps in a
Fourth-of-July crowd. Their appearance is generally
hailed with delight by the mariner. Full of fine spirits,
they invariably come from the breezy billows to windward.
They are the lads that always live before the wind. They
are accounted a lucky omen. If you yourself can with-
stand three cheers at beholding these vivacious fish, then
heaven help ye ; the spirit of godly gamesomeness is not
VOL. I. M
178 MOBY-DICK
in ye. A well-fed, plump Huzza porpoise will yield you
one good gallon of good oil. But the fine and delicate
fluid extracted from his jaws is exceedingly valuable.
It is in request among jewellers and watchmakers. Sailors
put it on their hones. Porpoise meat is good eating, you
know. It may never have occurred to you that a por-
poise spouts. Indeed, his spout is so small that it is not
very readily discernible. But the next time you have a
chance, watch him ; and you will then see the great
Sperm whale himself in miniature.
BOOK III. (Duodecimo), CHAPTER II. (Algerine Por-
poise). A pirate. Very savage. He is only found, I
think, in the Pacific. He is somewhat larger than the
Huzza porpoise, but much of the same general make.
Provoke him, and he will buckle to a shark. I have
lowered for him many times, but never yet saw him
captured.
BOOK III. (Duodecimo), CHAPTER III. (Mealy-mouthed
Porpoise). The largest kind of porpoise ; and only
found in the Pacific, so far as it is known. The only
English name, by which he has hitherto been designated,
,is that of the fishers Right-whale porpoise, from the
circumstance that he is chiefly found in the vicinity of
that Folio. In shape, he differs in some degree from the
Huzza porpoise, being of a less rotund and jolly girth ;
indeed, he is of quite a neat and gentleman -like figure.
He has no fins on his back (most other porpoises have),
he has a lovely tail, and sentimental Indian eyes of a
hazel hue. But his mealy-mouth spoils all. Though
his entire back down to his side fins is of a deep sable,
yet a boundary line, distinct as the mark in a ship's
hull, called the ' bright waist/ that line streaks him from
stem to stern, with two separate colours, black above and
white below. The white comprises part of his head, and
the whole of his mouth, which makes him look as if he
had just escaped from a felonious visit to a meal -bag.
CETOLOGY 179
A most mean and mealy aspect ! His oil is much like
that of the common porpoise.
*******
Beyond the DUODECIMO, this system does not proceed,
inasmuch as the porpoise is the smallest of the whales.
Above, you have all the leviathans of note. But there
are a rabble of uncertain, fugitive, half-fabulous whales,
which, as an American whaleman, I know by reputation,
but not personally. I shall enumerate them by their
forecastle appellations ; for possibly such a list may be
valuable to future investigators, who may complete what
I have here but begun. If any of the following whales
shall hereafter be caught and marked, then he can readily
be incorporated into this system, according to his Folio,
Octavo, or Duodecimo magnitude : The Bottle-nose
Whale ; the Junk Whale ; the Pudding-headed Whale ;
the Cape Whale ; the Leading Whale ; the Cannon
Whale ; the Scragg Whale ; the Coppered Whale ; the
Elephant Whale ; the Iceberg Whale ; the Quog Whale ;
the Blue Whale, etc. From Icelandic, Dutch, and old
English authorities, there might be quoted other lists of
uncertain whales, blessed with all manner of uncouth
names. But I omit them as altogether obsolete ; and
can hardly help suspecting them for mere sounds, full of
leviathanism, but signifying nothing.
Finally : It was stated at the outset, that this system
would not be here, and at once, perfected. You cannot
but plainly see that I have kept my word. But I now
leave my cetological system standing thus unfinished, even
as the great Cathedral of Cologne was left, with the crane
still standing upon the top of the uncompleted tower.
For small erections may be finished by their first archi-
tects ; grand ones, true ones, ever leave the cope-stone to
posterity. God keep me from ever completing anything.
This whole book is but a draught nay, but the draught
of a draught. Oh, Time, Strength, Cash, and Patience !
CHAPTER XXXIII
THE SPECKSYNDER
CONCERNING the officers of the whale-craft, this seems
as good a place as any to set down a little domestic
peculiarity on shipboard, arising from the existence of
the harpooneer class of officers, a class unknown of course
in any other marine than the whale-fleet.
The large importance attached to the harpooneer J s
vocation is evinced by the fact, that originally in the old
Dutch Fishery, two centuries and more ago, the command
of a whale -ship was not wholly lodged in the person now
called the captain, but was divided between him and an
officer called the Specksynder. Literally this word
means Fat -Cutter ; usage, however, in time made it
equivalent to Chief Harpooneer. In those days, the
captain's authority was restricted to the navigation and
general management of the vessel : while over the whale-
hunting department and all its concerns, the Specksynder
or Chief Harpooneer reigned supreme. In the British
Greenland Fishery, under the corrupted title of Speck-
sioneer, this old Dutch official is still retained, but his
former dignity is sadly abridged. At present he ranks
simply as senior Harpooneer ; and as such, is but one of
the captain's more inferior subalterns. Nevertheless, as
upon the good conduct of the harpooneers the success of
a whaling voyage largely depends, and since in the Ameri-
can Fishery he is not only an important officer in the boat,
but under certain circumstances (night-watches on a
whaling -ground) the command of the ship's deck is also
180
THE SPECKSYNDER 181
his ; therefore the grand political maxim of the sea
demands, that he should nominally live apart from the
men before the mast, and be in some way distinguished
as their professional superior ; though always, by them,
familiarly regarded as their social equal.
Now, the grand distinction drawn between officer and
man at sea is this the first lives aft, the last forward.
Hence, in whale-ships and merchantmen alike, the mates
have their quarters with the captain ; and so, too, in
most of the American whalers the harpooneers are lodged
in the after part of the ship. That is to say, they take
their meals in the captain's cabin, and sleep in a place
indirectly communicating with it.
Though the long period of a Southern whaling voyage
(by far the longest of all voyages now or ever made by
man), the peculiar perils of it, and the community of
interest prevailing among a company, all of whom, high
or low, depend for their profits, not upon fixed wages,
but upon their common luck, together with their common
vigilance, intrepidity, and hard work ; though all these
things do in some cases tend to beget a less rigorous
discipline than in merchantmen generally ; yet, never
mind how much like an old Mesopotamian family these
whalemen may, in some primitive instances, live together ;
for all that, the punctilious externals, at least, of the
quarter-deck are seldom materially relaxed, and in no
instance done away. Indeed, many are the Nantucket
ships in which you will see the skipper parading his
quarter-deck with an elated grandeur not surpassed in
any military navy ; nay, extorting almost as much out-
ward homage as if he wore the imperial purple, and not
the shabbiest of pilot-cloth.
And though of all men the moody captain of the Pequod
was the least given to that sort of shallowest assumption ;
and though the only homage he ever exacted was im-
182 MOBY-DICK
plicit, instantaneous obedience ; though he required no
man to remove the shoes from his feet ere stepping upon
the quarter-deck ; and though there were times when,
owing to peculiar circumstances connected with events
hereafter to be detailed, he addressed them in unusual
terms, whether of condescension or in terrorem, or other-
wise ; yet even Captain Ahab was by no means unob-
servant of the paramount forms and usages of the sea.
Nor, perhaps, will it fail to be eventually perceived, that
behind those forms and usages, as it were, he sometimes
masked himself ; incidentally making use of them for
other and more private ends than they were legitimately
intended to subserve. That certain sultanism of his
brain, which had otherwise in a good degree remained
unmanifested ; through those forms that same sultanism
/became incarnate in an irresistible dictatorship. For be a
man's intellectual superiority what it will, it can never
assume the practical, available supremacy over other men,
without the aid of some sort of external arts and entrench-
ments, always, in themselves, more or less paltry and base.
This it is, that forever keeps God's true princes of the
Empire from the world's hustings ; and leaves the highest
honours that this air can give, to those men who become
famous more through their infinite inferiority to the choice
hidden handful of the Divine Inert, than through their
undoubted superiority over the dead level of the mass.
Such large virtue lurks in these small things when extreme
political superstitions invest them, that in some royal
instances even to idiot imbecility they have imparted
potency. But when, as in the case of Nicholas the Czar,
the ringed crown of geographical empire encircles an
imperial brain ; then, the plebeian herds crouch abased
before the tremendous centralisation. Nor will the
tragic dramatist who would depict mortal indomitable -
ness in its fullest sweep and direct swing, ever forget a
THE SPECKS YNDER 183
hint, incidentally so important in his art, as the one now
alluded to.
But Ahab, my captain, still moves before me in all
his Nantucket grimness and shagginess ; and in this
episode touching emperors and kings, I must not conceal
that I have only to do with a poor old whale-hunter like
him ; and, therefore, all outward majestical trappings
and housings are denied me. Oh, Ahab ! what shall be
grand in thee, it must needs be plucked at from the skies,
and dived for in the deep, and featured in the unbodied
air !
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE CABIN-TABLE
IT is noon ; and Dough-Boy, the steward, thrusting his
pale loaf-of-bread face from the cabin-scuttle, announces
dinner to his lord and master ; who, sitting in the lee
quarter-boat, has just been taking an observation of the
sun ; and is now mutely reckoning the latitude on the
smooth, medallion-shaped tablet, reserved for that daily
purpose on the upper part of his ivory leg. From his
complete inattention to the tidings, you would think that
moody Ahab had not heard his menial. But presently,
catching hold of the mizen shrouds, he swings himself
to the deck, and in an even, unexhilarated voice, saying,
'Dinner, Mr. Starbuck,' disappears into the .cabin.
When the last echo of his sultan's step has died away,
and Starbuck, the first Emir, has every reason to suppose
that he is seated, then Starbuck rouses from his quietude,
takes a few turns along the planks, and, after a grave peep
into the binnacle, says, with some touch of pleasantness,
' Dinner, Mr. Stubb,' and descends the scuttle. The
second Emir lounges about the rigging a while, and then
slightly shaking the main-brace, to see whether it be
all right with that important rope, he likewise takes up
the old burden, and with a rapid * Dinner, Mr. Flask,'
follows after his predecessors.
But the third Emir, now seeing himself all alone on the
quarter-deck, seems to feel relieved from some curious
restraint ; for, tipping all sorts of knowing winks in all
sorts of directions, and kicking off his shoes, he strikes
184
THE CABIN-TABLE 185
into a sharp but noiseless squall of a hornpipe right over
the Grand Turk's head ; and then, by a dexterous sleight,
pitching his cap up into the mizen-top for a shelf, he goes
down rollicking, so far at least as he remains visible from
the deck, reversing all other processions by bringing up
the rear with music. But ere stepping into the cabin
doorway below, he pauses, ships a new face altogether,
and then, independent, hilarious little Flask enters King
Ahab's presence, in the character of Abjectus, or the
Slave.
It is not the least among the strange things bred by the
intense artificialness of sea-usages, that while in the open
air of the deck some officers will, upon provocation, bear
themselves boldly and defyingly enough toward their com-
mander ; yet, ten to one, let those very officers the next
moment go down to their customary dinner in that same
commander's cabin, and straightway their inoffensive,
not to say deprecatory and humble air toward him, as
he sits at the head of the table ; this is marvellous, some-
times most comical. Wherefore this difference ? A
problem ? Perhaps not. To have been Belshazzar,
King of Babylon ; and to have been Belshazzar, not
haughtily but courteously, therein certainly must have
been some touch of mundane grandeur. But he who in
the rightly regal and intelligent spirit presides over his
own private dinner-table of invited guests, that man's
unchallenged power and dominion of individual influ-
ence for the time ; that man's royalty of state transcends
Belshazzar 's, for Belshazzar was not the greatest. Who
has but once dined his friends, has tasted what it is to be
Caesar. It is a witchery of social czarship which there
is no withstanding. Now, if to this consideration you
superadd the official supremacy of a shipmaster, then,
by inference, you will derive the cause of that peculiarity
of sea-life just mentioned.
186 MOBY-DICK
Over his ivory-inlaid table, Ahab presided like a mute,
maned sea-lion on the white coral beach, surrounded by
his warlike but still deferential cubs. In his own proper
turn, each officer waited to be served. They were as
little children before Ahab ; and yet, in Ahab, there
seemed not to lurk the smallest social arrogance. With
one mind, their intent eyes all fastened upon the old man's
knife, as he carved the chief dish before him. I do not
suppose that for the world they would have profaned
that moment with the slightest observation, even upon
so neutral a topic as the weather. No ! And when
reaching out his knife and fork, between which the slice
of beef was locked, Ahab thereby motioned Starbuck's
plate toward him, the mate received his meat as though
receiving alms ; and cut it tenderly ; and a little started
if, perchance, the knife grazed against the plate ; and
chewed it noiselessly ; and swallowed it, not without
circumspection. For, like the Coronation banquet at
Frankfort, where the German Emperor profoundly dines
with the seven Imperial Electors, so these cabin meals
were somehow solemn meals, eaten in awful silence ; and
yet at table old Ahab forbade not conversation ; only he
himself was dumb. What a relief it was to choking Stubb,
when a rat made a sudden racket in the hold below. And
poor little Flask, he was the youngest son, and little boy
of this weary family party. His were the shin-bones
of the saline beef ; his would have been the drumsticks.
For Flask to have presumed to help himself, this must
have seemed to him tantamount to larceny in the first
degree. Had he helped himself at that table, doubtless,
never more would he have been able to hold his head up
in this honest world ; nevertheless, strange to say, Ahab
never forbade him. And had Flask helped himself, the
chances were Ahab had never so much as noticed it.
Least of all, did Flask presume to help himself to butter.
THE CABIN-TABLE 187
Whether he thought the owners of the ship denied it to
him, on account of its clotting his clear, sunny com-
plexion ; or whether he deemed that, on so long a voyage
in such marketless waters, butter was at a premium, and
therefore was not for him, a subaltern ; however it was,
Flask, alas ! was a butterless man !
Another thing. Flask was the last person down at the
dinner, and Flask is the first man up. Consider ! For
hereby Flask's dinner was badly jammed in point of time.
Starbuck and Stubb both had the start of him ; and yet
they also have the privilege of lounging in the rear. If
Stubb even, who is but a peg higher than Flask, happens
to have but a small appetite, and soon shows symptoms
of concluding his repast, then Flask must bestir himself,
he will not get more than three mouthfuls that day ; for
it is against holy usage for Stubb to precede Flask to the
deck. Therefore it was that Flask once admitted in
private, that ever since he had arisen to the dignity of an
officer, from that moment he had never known what it
was to be otherwise than hungry, more or less. For
what he ate did not so much relieve his hunger, as keep
it immortal hi him. Peace and satisfaction, thought
Flask, have forever departed from my stomach. I am
an officer ; but, how I wish I could fist a bit of old-
fashioned beef in the forecastle, as I used to when I was
before the mast. There 's the fruits of promotion now ;
there 's the vanity of glory : there 's the insanity of life !
Besides, if it were so that any mere sailor of the Pequod
had a grudge against Flask in Flask's official capacity, all
that sailor had to do, in order to obtain ample vengeance,
was to go aft at dinner-time, and get a peep at Flask
through the cabin skylight, sitting silly and dumfoundered
before awful Ahab.
Now, Ahab and his three mates formed what may be
called the first table in the Pequod' s cabin. After their
188 MOBY-DICK
departure, taking place in inverted order to their arrival,
the canvas cloth was cleared, or rather was restored to
some hurried order by the pallid steward. And then the
three harpooneers were bidden to the feast, they being
its residuary legatees. They made a sort of temporary
servants' hall of the high and mighty cabin.
In strange contrast to the hardly tolerable constraint
and nameless invisible domineerings of the captain's table,
was the entire care -free licence and ease, the almost frantic
democracy of those inferior fellows the harpooneers.
While their masters, the mates, seemed afraid of the
sound of the hinges of their own jaws, the harpooneers
chewed their food with such a relish that there was a
report to it. They dined like lords ; they filled their
bellies like Indian ships all day loading with spices.
Such portentous appetites had Queequeg and Tashtego,
that to fill out the vacancies made by the previous repast,
often the pale Dough-Boy was fain to bring on a great
baron of salt-junk, seemingly quarried out of the solid
ox. And if he were not lively about it, if he did not go
with a nimble hop-skip-and-jump, then Tashtego had an
ungeiitlemanly way of accelerating him by darting a fork
at his back, harpoon- wise. And once Daggoo, seized
with a sudden humour, assisted Dough-Boy's memory by
snatching him up bodily, and thrusting his head into a
great empty wooden trencher, while Tashtego, knife in
hand, began laying out the circle preliminary to scalping
him. He was naturally a very nervous, shuddering sort
of little fellow, this broad-faced steward ; the progeny
of a bankrupt baker and a hospital nurse. And what
with the standing spectacle of the black terrific Ahab,
and the periodical tumultuous visitations of these three
savages, Dough-Boy's whole life was one continual lip-
quiver. Commonly, after seeing the harpooneers fur-
nished with all things they demanded, he would escape
THE CABIN-TABLE 189
from their clutches into his little pantry adjoining, and
fearfully peep out at them through the blinds of its door,
till all was over.
It was a sight to see Queequeg seated over against
Tashtego, opposing his filed teeth to the Indian's : cross-
wise to them, Daggoo seated on the floor, for a bench
would have brought his hearse-plumed head to the low
carlines ; at every motion of his colossal limbs, making
the low cabin framework to shake, as when an African
elephant goes passenger in a ship. But for all this, the
great negro was wonderfully abstemious, not to say dainty.
It seemed hardly possible that by such comparatively
small mouthfuls he could keep up the vitality diffused
through so broad, baronial, and superb a person. But,
doubtless, this noble savage fed strong and drank deep
of the abounding element of air ; and through his dilated
nostrils snuffed in the sublime life of the worlds. Not by
beef or by bread are giants made or nourished. But
Queequeg, he had a mortal, barbaric smack of the lip in
eating an ugly sound enough so much so, that the
trembling Dough-Boy almost looked to see whether any
marks of teeth lurked in his own lean arms. And when
he would hear Tashtego singing out for him to produce
himself, that his bones might be picked, the simple -witted
steward all but shattered the crockery hanging round him
in the pantry, by his sudden fits of the palsy. Nor did
the whetstone which the harpooneers carried in their
pockets, for their lances and other weapons ; and with
which whetstones, at dinner, they would ostentatiously
sharpen their knives ; that grating sound did not at all
tend to tranquillise poor Dough-Boy. How could he
forget that in his Island days, Queequeg, for one, must
certainly have been guilty of some murderous, convivial
indiscretions. Alas ! Dough-Boy ! hard fares the white
waiter who waits upon cannibals. Not a napkin should
190 MOBY-DICK
he carry on his arm, but a buckler. In good time,
though, to his great delight, the three salt-sea warriors
would rise and depart ; to his credulous, fable-mongering
ears, all their martial bones jingling in them at every step,
like Moorish scimitars in scabbards.
But, though these barbarians dined in the cabin, and
nominally lived there ; still, being anything but seden-
tary in their habits, they were scarcely ever in it except
at meal-times, and just before sleeping-time, when they
passed through it to their own peculiar quarters.
In this one matter, Ahab seemed no exception to most
American whale-captains, who, as a set, rather incline to
the opinion that by rights the ship's cabin belongs to
them ; and that it is by courtesy alone that anybody else
is, at any time, permitted there. So that, in real truth,
the mates and harpooneers of the Pequod might more
properly be said to have lived out of the cabin than in
it. For when they did enter it, it was something as a
street-door enters a house ; turning inward for a moment,
only to be turned out the next ; and, as a permanent
thing, residing in the open air. Nor did they lose much
hereby ; in the cabin was no companionship ; socially,
Ahab was inaccessible. Though nominally included in
the census of Christendom, he was still an alien to it.
He lived in the world, as the last of the grizzly bears lived
in settled Missouri. And as when spring and summer
had departed, that wild Logan of the woods, burying
himself in the hollow of a tree, lived out the winter there,
sucking his own paws ; so, in his inclement, howling old
age, Ahab's soul, shut up in the caved trunk of his body,
there fed upon the sullen paws of its gloom !
CHAPTER XXXV
THE MAST-HEAD
IT was during the more pleasant weather, that in due
rotation with the other seamen my first mast-head came
round.
In most American whalemen the mast-heads are
manned almost simultaneously with the vessel's leaving
her port - r even though she may have fifteen thousand
miles, and more, to sail ere reaching her proper cruising-
ground. And if, after a three, four, or five years' voyage
she is drawing nigh home with anything empty in her
say, an empty vial even then her mast-heads are kept
manned to the last ; and not till her skysail-poles sail
in among the spires of the port, does she altogether relin-
quish the hope of capturing one whale more.
Now, as the business of standing mast-heads, ashore or
afloat, is a very ancient and interesting one, let us in some
measure expatiate here. I take it, that the earliest
standers of mast-heads were the old Egyptians ; because,
in all my researches, I find none prior to them. For
though their progenitors, the builders of Babel, must
doubtless, by their tower, have intended to rear the
loftiest mast-head in all Asia, or Africa either ; yet (ere
the final truck was put to it) as that great stone mast of
theirs may be said to have gone by the board, in the dread
gale of God's wrath ; therefore, we cannot give these
Babel builders priority over the Egyptians. And that
the Egyptians were a nation of mast-head standers is
an assertion based upon the general belief among archseo-
191
192 MOBY-DICK
legists, that the first pyramids were founded for astro-
nomical purposes : a theory singularly supported by the
peculiar stair-like formation of all four sides of those
edifices ; whereby, with prodigious long upliftings of their
legs, those old astronomers were wont to mount to the
apex, and sing out for new stars ; even as the look-outs
of a modern ship sing out for a sail, or a whale just bearing
in sight. In Saint Stylites, the famous Christian hermit
of old times, who built him a lofty stone pillar in the
desert and spent the whole latter portion of his life on its
summit, hoisting his food from the ground with a tackle ;
in him we have a remarkable instance of a dauntless
stander of mast-heads ; who was not to be driven from
his place by fogs or frosts, rain, hail, or sleet ; but vali-
antly facing everything out to the last, literally died at
his post. Of modern standers of mast-heads we have
but a lifeless set ; mere stone, iron, and bronze men ; who,
though well capable of facing out a stiff gale, are still
entirely incompetent to the business of singing out upon
discovering any strange sight. There is Napoleon ; who,
upon the top of the column of Vendome, stands with arms
folded, some one hundred and fifty feet in the air ; care-
less, now, who rules the decks below ; whether Louis-
Philippe, Louis Blanc, or Louis the Devil. Great
Washington, too, stands high aloft on his towering main-
mast in Baltimore, and like one of Hercules' pillars, his
column marks that point of human grandeur beyond which
few mortals will go. Admiral Nelson, also, on a capstan
of gun-metal, stands his mast-head in Trafalgar Square ;
and ever when most obscured by that London smoke,
token is yet given that a hidden hero is there ; for where
there is smoke, must be fire. But neither great Washing-
ton, nor Napoleon, nor Nelson, will answer a single hail
from below, however madly invoked to befriend by their
counsels the distracted decks upon which they gaze ;
THE MAST-HEAD 193
however it' may be surmised, that their spirits penetrate
through the thick haze of the future, and descry what
shoals and what rocks must be shunned.
It may seem unwarrantable to couple in any respect
the mast-head standers of the land with those of the sea ;
but that in truth it is not so, is plainly evinced by an item
for which Obed Macy, the sole historian of Nantucket,
stands accountable. The worthy Obed tells us, that in
the early times of the whale-fishery, ere ships were regu-
larly launched in pursuit of the game, the people of that
island erected lofty spars along the sea-coast, to which
the look-outs ascended by means of nailed cleats, some-
thing as fowls go upstairs in a hen-house. A few years
ago this same plan was adopted by the Bay whalemen of
New Zealand, who, upon descrying the game, gave notice
to the ready-manned boats nigh the beach. But this
custom has now become obsolete ; turn we then to the
one proper mast-head, that of a whale-ship at sea. The
three mast-heads are kept manned from sunrise to sunset ;
the seamen taking their regular turns (as at the helm),
and relieving each other every two hours. In the serene
weather of the Tropics it is exceedingly pleasant the mast-
head ; nay, to a dreamy meditative man it is delightful.
There you stand, a hundred feet above the silent decks,
; striding along the deep, as if the masts were gigantic
; stilts, while beneath you and between your legs, as it
were, swim the hugest monsters of the sea, even as ships
once sailed between the boots of the famous Colossus at
old Rhodes. There you stand, lost in the infinite series
of the sea, with nothing ruffled but the waves. The
tranced ship indolently rolls ; the drowsy trade winds
;blow ; everything resolves you into languor. For the
most part, in this tropic whaling life, a sublime unevent-
Mness invests you ; you hear no news ; read no gazettes ;
;)xtras with startling accounts of commonplaces never
VOL. i. N
194 MOBY-DICK
delude you into unnecessary excitements ; you hear of
no domestic afflictions ; bankrupt securities ; fall of
stocks ; are never troubled with the thought of what you
shall have for dinner for all your meals for three years
and more are snugly stowed in casks, and your bill of fare
is immutable.
In one of those Southern whalemen, on a long three or
four years' voyage, as often happens, the sum of the various
hours you spend at the mast-head would amount to several
entire months. And it is much to be deplored that the
place to which you devote so considerable a portion of
the whole term of your natural life, should be so sadly
destitute of anything approaching to a cosy inhabitive-
ness, or adapted to breed a comfortable localness of feel-
ing, such as pertains to a bed, a hammock, a hearse, a
sentry-box, a pulpit, a coach, or any other of those small
and snug contrivances in which men temporarily isolate
themselves. Your most usual point of perch is the head
of the t '-gallant-mast, where you stand upon two thin
parallel sticks (almost peculiar to whalemen) called the
t '-gallant-cross-trees. Here, tossed about by the sea, the
beginner feels about as cosy as he would standing on a
bull's horns. To be sure, in cold weather you may carry
your house aloft with you, in the shape of a watch-coat ;
but properly speaking the thickest watch-coat is no more
of a house than the unclad body ; for as the soul is glued
inside of its fleshly tabernacle, and cannot freely move
about in it, nor even move out of it, without running great
risk of perishing (like an ignorant pilgrim crossing the
snowy Alps in winter) ; so a watch-coat is not so much
of a house as it is a mere envelope, or additional skin
encasing you. You cannot put a shelf or chest of drawers i
in your body, and no more can you make a convenient
closet of your watch-coat.
Concerning all this, it is much to be deplored that the
THE MAST-HEAD 195
mast-heads of a Southern whale -ship are unprovided
with those enviable little tents or pulpits, called crow's-
nests, in which the look-outs of a Greenland whaler are
protected from the inclement weather of the frozen seas.
In the fireside narrative of Captain Sleet, entitled A
Voyage among the Icebergs, in quest of the Greenland Whale,
and incidentally for the re-discovery of the Lost Icelandic
Colonies of Old Greenland ; in this admirable volume, all
standers of mast-heads are furnished with a charmingly
circumstantial account of the then recently invented
crow's-nest of the Glacier, which was the name of Captain
Sleet's good craft. He called it the Sleet's crow's-nest, in
honour of himself ; he being the original inventor and
patentee, and free from all ridiculous false delicacy, and
holding that if we call our own children after our own
names (we fathers being the original inventors and
patentees), so likewise should we denominate after our-
selves any other apparatus we may beget. In shape,
the Sleet's crow's-nest is something like a large tierce or
pipe ; it is open above, however, where it is furnished
with a movable side -screen to keep to windward of your
head in a hard gale. Being fixed on the summit of the
mast, you ascend into it through a little trap-hatch in
the bottom. On the after side, or side next the stern of
the ship, is a comfortable seat, with a locker underneath
for umbrellas, comforters, and coats. In front is a
leather rack, hi which to keep your speaking trumpet,
pipe, telescope, and other nautical conveniences. When
Captain Sleet in person stood his mast-head hi this crow's-
nest of his, he tells us that he always had a rifle with him
(also fixed in the rack), together with a powder-flask and
shot, for the purpose of popping off the stray narwhales,
or vagrant sea-unicorns infesting those waters ; for you
cannot successfully shoot at them from the deck owing to
the resistance of the water, but to shoot down upon them
196 MOBY-DICK
is a very different thing. Now, it was plainly a labour
of love for Captain Sleet to describe, as he does, all the
little detailed conveniences of his crow's-nest ; but though
he so enlarges upon many of these, and though he treats
us to a very scientific account of his experiments in this
crow's-nest, with a small compass he kept there for the
purpose of counteracting the errors resulting from what
is called the ' local attraction ' of all binnacle magnets ;
an error ascribable to the horizontal vicinity of the iron
in the ship's planks, and in the Glacier's case, perhaps, to
there having been so many broken-down blacksmiths
among her crew ; I say, that though the captain is very
discreet and scientific here, yet, for all his learned ' bin-
nacle deviations,' ' azimuth compass observations,' and
' approximate errors,' he knows very well, Captain Sleet,
that he was not so much immersed in those profound
magnetic meditations, as to fail being attracted occasion-
ally toward that well-replenished little case-bottle, so
nicely tucked in on one side of his crow's-nest, within
easy reach of his hand. Though, upon the whole, I
greatly admire and even love the brave, the honest, and
learned captain ; yet I take it very ill of him that he
should so utterly ignore that case-bottle, seeing what a
faithful friend and comforter it must have been, while
with mittened fingers and hooded head he was studying
the mathematics aloft there in that bird's nest within
three or four perches of the pole.
But if we Southern whale -fishers are not so snugly
housed aloft as Captain Sleet and his Greenland men
were ; yet that disadvantage is greatly counterbalanced
by the widely contrasting serenity of those seductive
seas in which we South fishers mostly float. For one, I
used to lounge up the rigging very leisurely, resting hi
the top to have a chat with Queequeg, or anyone else off
duty whom I might find there ; then ascending a littl
THE MAST-HEAD 197
way further, and throwing a lazy leg over the topsail-
yard, take a preliminary view of the watery pastures,
and so at last mount to my ultimate destination.
Let me make a clean breast of it here, and frankly
admit that I kept but sorry guard. With the problem
of the universe revolving in me, how could I being left
completely to myself at such a thought-engendering alti-
tude, how could I but lightly hold my obligations to
observe all whale -ships' standing orders, ' Keep your
weather-eye open, and sing out every time ' ?
And let me in this place movingly admonish you, ye
shipowners of Nantucket ! Beware of enlisting in your
vigilant fisheries any lad with lean brow and hollow eye ;
given to unseasonable meditativeness ; and who offers
to ship with the Phsedon instead of Bowditch in his head.
Beware of such an one, I say : your whales must be seen
before they can be killed ; and this sunken-eyed young
Platonist will tow you ten wakes round the world, and
never make you one pint of sperm the richer. Nor are
these monitions at all unneeded. For nowadays, the
whale-fishery furnishes an asylum for many romantic,
melancholy, and absent-minded young men, disgusted
with the carking cares of earth, and seeking sentiment in
tar and blubber. Childe Harold not unfrequently perches
himself upon the mast-head of some luckless disappointed
whale-ship, and in moody phrase ejaculates :
1 Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll !
Ten thousand blubber-hunters sweep over thee in vain.'
Very often do the captains of such ships take those
absent-minded young philosophers to task, upbraiding
them with not feeling sufficient ' interest ' in the voyage ;
half -hinting that they are so hopelessly lost to all honour-
able ambition, as that in their secret souls they would
rather not see whales than otherwise. But all in vain ;
198 MOBY-DICK
those young Platonists have a notion that their vision
is imperfect ; they are short-sighted ; what use, then, to
strain the visual nerve ? They have left their opera-
glasses at home.
' Why, thou monkey, ' said a harpooneer to one of these
lads, ' we 've been cruising now hard upon three years,
and thou hast not raised a whale yet. Whales are scarce
as hen's teeth whenever thou art up here.' Perhaps they
were ; or perhaps there might have been shoals of them
in the far horizon ; but lulled into such an opium-like
listlessness of vacant, unconscious revery is this absent-
minded youth by the blending cadence of waves with
thoughts, that at last he loses his identity ; takes the
mystic ocean at his feet for the visible image of that deep,
blue, bottomless soul, pervading mankind and nature ;
and every strange, half -seen, gliding, beautiful thing that
eludes him ; every dimly discovered, uprising fin of some
undiscernible form, seems to him the embodiment of
those elusive thoughts that only people the soul by con-
tinually flitting through it. In this enchanted mood,
thy spirit ebbs away to whence it came ; becomes diffused
through time and space ; like Cranmer's sprinkled Pan-
theistic ashes, forming at last a part of every shore the
round globe over.
There is no life in thee, now, except that rocking life
imparted by a gently rolling ship ; by her, borrowed from
the sea ; by the sea, from the inscrutable tides of God.
But while this sleep, this dream is on ye, move your foot
or hand an inch ; slip your hold at all ; and your identity
comes back in horror. Over Descartian vortices you
hover. And perhaps, at mid-day, in the fairest weather,
with one half-throttled shriek you drop through that
transparent air into the summer sea, no more to rise for-
ever. Heed it well, ye Pantheists !
CHAPTER XXXVI
THE QUARTEK-DECK
(Enter Ahab : Then all.)
IT was not a great while after the affair of the pipe, that
one morning shortly after breakfast, Ahab, as was his
wont, ascended the cabin-gangway to the deck. There
most sea-captains usually walk at that hour, as country
gentlemen, after the same meal, take a few turns in
the garden.
Soon his steady, ivory stride was heard, as to and fro
he paced his old rounds, upon planks so familiar to his
tread, that they were all over dented, like geological
stones, with the peculiar mark of his walk. Did you
fixedly gaze, too, upon that ribbed and dented brow ;
there also, you would see still stranger footprints the
footprints of his one unsleeping, ever-pacing thought.
But on the occasion hi question, those dents looked
deeper, even as his nervous step that morning left a
deeper mark. And, so full of his thought was Ahab, that
at every uniform turn that he made, now at the main-
mast and now at the binnacle, you could almost see
that thought turn in him as he turned, and pace in him
as he paced ; so completely possessing him, indeed,
that it all but seemed the inward mould of every outer
movement.
' D' ye mark him, Flask ? ' whispered Stubb ; * the
chick that 's in him pecks the shell. 'Twill soon be out.'
The hours wore on ; Ahab now shut up within his
199
200 MOBY-DICK
cabin ; anon, pacing the deck, with the same intense
bigotry of purpose in his aspect.
It drew near the close of day. Suddenly he came to a
halt by the bulwarks, and inserting his bone leg into the
auger-hole there, and with one hand grasping a shroud,
he ordered Starbuck to send everybody aft.
' Sir ! ' said the mate, astonished at an order seldom
or never given on shipboard except in some extraordinary
case.
' Send everybody aft,' repeated Ahab. ' Mast-heads,
there ! come down ! '
When the entire ship's company were assembled, and
with curious and not wholly unapprehensive faces were
eyeing him, for he looked not unlike the weather horizon
when a storm is coming up, Ahab, after rapidly glancing
over the bulwarks, and then darting his eyes among the
crew, started from his standpoint ; and as though not a
soul were nigh him resumed his heavy turns upon the
deck. With bent head and half-slouched hat he con-
tinued to pace, unmindful of the wondering whispering
among the men ; till Stubb cautiously whispered to
Flask, that Ahab must have summoned them there for
the purpose of witnessing a pedestrian feat. But this
did not last long. Vehemently pausing, he cried :
' What do ye do when ye see a whale, men ? '
' Sing out for him ! ' was the impulsive rejoinder from
a score of clubbed voices.
4 Good ! ' cried Ahab, with a wild approval in his tones ;
observing the hearty animation into which his unexpected
question had so magnetically thrown them.
' And what do ye next, men ? '
' Lower away, and after him ! '
' And what tune is it ye pull to, men ? '
' A dead whale or a stove boat ! '
More and more strangely and fiercely glad and approv-
THE QUARTER-DECK 201
ing grew the countenance of the old man at every
shout ; while the mariners began to gaze curiously at
each other, as if marvelling how it was that they them-
selves became so excited at such seemingly purposeless
questions.
But, they were all eagerness again, as Ahab, now half-
revolving in his pivot -hole, with one hand reaching high
up a shroud, and tightly, almost convulsively grasping
it, addressed them thus :
' All ye mast-headers have before now heard me give
orders about a white whale. Look ye ! d' ye see this
Spanish ounce of gold*? ' holding up a broad bright
coin to the sun ' it is a sixteen-dollar piece, men. D' ye
see it ? Mr. Starbuck, hand me yon top-maul/
While the mate was getting the hammer, Ahab, without
speaking, was slowly rubbing the gold piece against the
skirts of his jacket, as if to heighten its lustre, and without
using any words was meanwhile lowly humming to him-
self, producing a sound so strangely muffled and inarticu-
late that it seemed the mechanical humming of the wheels
of his vitality in him.
Receiving the top-maul from Starbuck, he advanced
toward the mainmast with the hammer uplifted in one
hand, exhibiting the gold with the other, and with a high
raised voice exclaiming : ' Whosoever of ye raises me a
white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked
jaw ; whosoever of ye raises me that white-headed whale,
with three holes punctured in his starboard fluke look
ye, whosoever of ye raises me that same white whale,
he shall have this gold ounce, my boys ! '
' Huzza ! huzza ! ' cried the seamen, as with swinging
tarpaulins they hailed the act of nailing the gold to
the mast.
' It 's a white whale, I say,' resumed Ahab, as he threw
down the top-maul ; * a white whale. Skin your eyes
202 MOBY-DICK
for him, men ; look sharp for white water ; if ye see but
a bubble, sing out.'
All this while Tashtego, Daggoo, and Queequeg had
looked on with even more intense interest and surprise
than the rest, and at the mention of the wrinkled brow
and crooked jaw they had started as if each was separately
touched by some specific recollection.
' Captain Ahab,' said Tashtego, ' that white whale must
be the same that some call Moby-Dick.'
' Moby-Dick ? ' shouted Ahab. ' Do ye know the white
whale then, Tash ? '
' Does he fan-tail a little curious, sir, before he goes
down ? ' said the Gay-Header deliberately.
' And has he a curious spout, too,' said Daggoo, ' very
bushy, even for a parmacetty, and mighty quick, Captain
Ahab ? '
1 And he have one, two, tree oh ! good many iron
in him hide, too, captain,' cried Queequeg disjointedly,
4 all twiske-tee be-twisk, like him him ' faltering
hard for a word, and screwing his hand round and round
as though uncorking a bottle ' like him him '
' Cork-screw ! ' cried Ahab, ' ay, Queequeg, the har-
poons lie all twisted and wrenched in him ; ay, Daggoo,
his spout is a big one, like a whole shock of wheat, and
white as a pile of our Nantucket wool after the great
annual sheep-shearing ; ay, Tashtego, and he fan-tails
like a split jib in a squall. Death and devils ! men, it is
Moby-Dick ye have seen Moby-Dick Moby-Dick ! '
' Captain Ahab,' said Starbuck, who, with Stubb and
Flask, had thus far been eyeing his superior with increasing
surprise, but at last seemed struck with a thought which
somewhat explained all the wonder. ' Captain Ahab,
I have heard of Moby-Dick but it was not Moby-Dick
that took off thy leg ? '
' Who told thee that ? ' cried Ahab ; then pausing,
THE QUARTER-DECK 203
' Ay, Starbuck ; ay, my hearties all round ; it was
Moby-Dick that dismasted me ; Moby-Dick that brought
me to this dead stump I stand on now. Ay, ay,' he
shouted, with a terrific, loud, animal sob, like that of a
heart -stricken moose ; ' Ay, ay ! it was that accursed
white whale that razeed me ; made a poor pegging lubber
of me for ever and a day ! ' Then tossing both arms,
with measureless imprecations he shouted out : ' Ay,
ay ! and I '11 chase him round Good Hope, and round
the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round
perdition's flames before I give him up. And this is what
ye have shipped for, men ! to chase that white whale on
both sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he spouts
black blood and rolls fin out. What say ye, men, will ye
splice hands on it, now ? I think ye do look brave/
* Ay, ay ! ' shouted the harpooneers and seamen,
running closer to the excited old man : ' a sharp eye for
the White Whale ; a sharp lance for Moby-Dick ! '
' God bless ye,' he seemed to half sob and half shout.
' God bless ye, men. Steward ! go draw the great
measure of grog. But what 's this long face about, Mr.
Starbuck ; wilt thou not chase the White Whale ? art not
game for Moby-Dick ? '
' I am game for his crooked jaw, and for the jaws of
Death too, Captain Ahab, if it fairly comes in the way of
the business we follow ; but I came here to hunt whales,
not my commander's vengeance. How many barrels
will thy vengeance yield thee even if thou gettest it,
Captain Ahab ? it will not fetch thee much in our Nan-
tucket market.'
' Nantucket market ! Hoot ! But come closer, Star-
buck ; thou requirest a little lower layer. If money 's
to be the measurer, man, and the accountants have com-
puted their great counting-house the globe, by girdling
it with guineas, one to every three parts of an inch ; then,
204 MOBY-DICK
let me tell thee, that my vengeance will fetch a great
premium here ! '
' He smites his chest/ whispered Stubb, ' what 's that
for ? methinks it rings most vast, but hollow.'
' Vengeance on a dumb brute ! ' cried Starbuck, ' that
simply smote thee from blindest instinct ! Madness !
To be enraged with a dumb thing, Captain Ahab, seems
\ blapkemous.'
' Hark ye yet again, the little lower layer. All visible
objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each
event in the living act, the undoubted deed there, some
unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings
of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man
will strike, strike through the mask ! How can the prisoner
reach outside except by thrusting through the wall ? To
me, the White Whale is that wall, shoved near to me.
Sometimes I think there 's naught beyond. But 'tis
enough. He tasks me ; he heaps me ; I see in him out-
rageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it.
That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate ; and be the
White Whale agent, or be the White Whale principal, I will
wreak that hate upon him. Talk not to me of blasphemy,
man ; I 'd strike the sun if it insulted me. For could the
sun do that, then could I do the other ; since there is ever
a sort of fair play herein, jealousy presiding over all
creations. But not my master, man, is even that fair
play. Who 's over me ? Truth hath no confines. Take
off thine eye ! more intolerable than fiends' glarings is a
doltish stare ! So, so ; thou reddenest and palest ; my
heat has melted thee to anger-glow. But look ye, Star-
buck, what is said in heat, that thing unsays itself. There
are men from whom warm words are small indignity. I
meant not to incense thee. Let it go. Look ! see yonder
Turkish cheeks of spotted tawn living, breathing pictures
painted by the sun. The pagan leopards the unrecking
THE QUARTER-DECK 205
and un worshipping things, that live ; and seek, and give
no reasons for the torrid life they feel ! The crew, man,
the crew ! Are they not one and all with Ahab, in this
matter of the whale ? See Stubb ! he laughs ! See
yonder Chilian ! he snorts to think of it. Stand up amid
the general hurricane, thy one tost sapling cannot, Star-
buck ! And what is it ? Reckon it. 'Tis but to help
strike a fin ; no wondrous feat for Starbuck. What is it
more ? From this one poor hunt, then, the best lance
out of all Nantucket, surely he will not hang back, when
every foremast -hand has clutched a whetstone ? Ah !
constrainings seize thee ; I see ! the billow lifts thee !
Speak, but speak ! Ay, ay ! thy silence, then, that
voices thee. (Aside) Something shot from my dilated
nostrils, he has inhaled it in his lungs. Starbuck now is
mine ; cannot oppose me now, without rebellion.'
4 God keep me ! keep us all ! ' murmured Starbuck
lowly.
But in his joy at the enchanted, tacit acquiescence of the
mate, Ahab did not hear his foreboding invocation ; nor
yet the low laugh from the hold ; nor yet the presaging
vibrations of the winds in the cordage ; nor yet the hollow
flap of the sails against the masts, as for a moment their
hearts sank in. For again Starbuck's downcast eyes
lighted up with the stubbornness of life ; the subterranean
laugh died away ; the winds blew on ; the sails filled out ;
the ship heaved and rolled as before. Ah, ye admoni-
tions and warnings ! why stay ye not when ye come ?
But rather are ye predictions than warnings, ye shadows !
Yet not so much predictions from without, as verifications
of the foregoing things within. For with little external
to constrain us, the innermost necessities in our being,
these still drive us on.
' The measure ! the measure ! ' cried Ahab.
Receiving the brimming pewter, and turning to the
206 MOBY-DICK
harpooneers, he ordered them to produce their weapons.
Then ranging them before him near the capstan, with
their harpoons in their hands, while his three mates stood
at his side with their lances, and the rest of the ship's
company formed a circle round the group ; he stood for
an instant searchingly eyeing every man of his crew.
But those wild eyes met his, as the bloodshot eyes of the
prairie wolves meet the eye of their leader, ere he rushes
on at their head in the trail of the bison ; but, alas ! only
to fall into the hidden snare of the Indian.
* Drink and pass ! ' he cried, handing the heavy charged
flagon to the nearest seaman. ' The crew alone now
drink. Round with it, round ! Short draughts long
swallows, men ; 'tis hot as Satan's hoof. So, so ; it goes
round excellently. It spiralises in ye ; forks out at the
serpent -snapping eye. Well done ; almost drained.
That way it went, this way it comes. Hand it me
j here 's a hollow ! Men, ye seem the years ; so brimming
! life is gulped and gone. Steward, refill !
' Attend now, my braves. I have mustered ye all
round this capstan ; and ye, mates, flank me with your
lances ; and ye, harpooneers, stand there with your irons ;
and ye, stout mariners, ring me in, that I may in some
sort revive a noble custom of my fisherman fathers before
me. men, you will yet see that Ha ! boy, come
back ? bad pennies come not sooner. Hand it me. Why,
now, this pewter had run brimming again, wert not thou
St. Vitus' imp away, thou ague !
' Advance, ye mates ! Cross your lances full before me.
Well done ! Let me touch the axis.' So saying, with
extended arm, he grasped the three level, radiating lances
at their crossed centre ; while so doing, suddenly and
nervously twitched them ; meanwhile, glancing intently
from Starbuck to Stubb, from Stubb to Flask. It
seemed as though, by some nameless, interior volition,
THE QUARTER-DECK 207
he would fain have shocked into them the same fiery
emotion accumulated within the Leyden jar of his own
magnetic life. The three mates quailed before his strong,
sustained, and mystic aspect. Stubb and Flask looked
sideways from him ; the honest eye of Starbuck fell
downright.
' In vain ! ' cried Ahab ; ' but, maybe, 'tis well. For
did ye three but once take the full-forced shock, then
mine own electric thing, that had perhaps expired from
out me. Perchance, too, it would have dropped ye dead.
Perchance ye need it not. Down lances ! And now, ye
mates, I do appoint ye three cup-bearers to my three
pagan kinsmen there yon three most honourable gentle-
men and noblemen, my valiant harpooneers. Disdain
the task ? What, when the great Pope washes the feet
of beggars, using his tiara for ewer ? Oh, my sweet
cardinals ! your own condescension, that shall bend ye
to it. I do not order ye ; ye will it. Cut your seizings
and draw the poles, ye harpooneers ! '
Silently obeying the order, the three harpooneers now
stood with the detached iron part of their harpoons, some
three feet long, held, barbs up, before him.
' Stab me not with that keen steel ! Cant them ;
cant them over ! know ye not the goblet end ? Turn
up the socket ! So, so ; now, ye cup-bearers, advance.
The irons ! take them ; hold them while I fill ! ' Forth-
with, slowly going from one officer to the other, he
brimmed the harpoon sockets with the fiery waters from
the pewter.
' Now, three to three, ye stand. Commend the murder-
ous chalices ! Bestow them, ye who are now made
parties to this indissoluble league. Ha ! Starbuck ! but
the deed is done ! Yon ratifying sun now waits to sit
upon it. Drink, ye harpooneers ! drink and swear, ye
men that man the deathful whale-boat's bow Death to 1
208 MOBY-DICK
Moby-Dick ! God hunt us all, if we do not hunt Moby-
Dick to his death ! ' The long, barbed steel goblets were
lifted ; and to cries and maledictions against the White
Whale, the spirits were simultaneously quaffed down with
a hiss. Starbuck paled, and turned, and shivered. Once
more, and finally, the replenished pewter went the rounds
among the frantic crew ; when, waving his free hand to
them, they all dispersed ; and Ahab retired within his
cabin.
CHAPTER XXXVII
SUNSET
(The cabin ; by the stern windows ; Ahab sitting alone,
and gazing out.)
I LEAVE a white and turbid wake ; pale waters, paler
cheeks, where'er I sail. The envious billows sidelong swell
to whelm my track ; let them ; but first I pass.
Yonder, by the ever-brimming goblet's rim, the warm
waves blush like wine. The gold brow plumbs the blue.
The diver sun slow dived from noon, goes down ; my
soul mounts up ! she wearies with her endless hill. Is,
then, the crown too heavy that I wear ? this Iron Crown
of Lombardy. Yet is it bright with many a gem ; I, the
wearer, see not its far flashings ; but darkly feel that I
wear that, that dazzlingly confounds. 'Tis iron that
I know not gold. 'Tis split, too that I feel ; the
jagged edge galls me so, my brain seems to beat against
the solid metal ; ay, steel skull, mine ; the sort that
needs no helmet in the most brain-battering fight !
Dry heat upon my brow ? Oh ! time was, when as
the sunrise nobly spurred me, so the sunset soothed. No
more. This lovely light, it lights not me ; all loveliness
is anguish to me, since I can ne'er enjoy. Gifted with the
high perception, I lack the low, enjoying power ; damned,
most subtly ana most malignantly ! damned in the midst ,
of Paradise ! Good night good night ! (Waving his '
hand, he moves from the window.)
'Twas not so hard a task. I thought to find one stub-
VOL. I. O
210 MOBY-DICK
born, at the least ; but my one cogged circle fits into all
their various wheels, and they revolve. Or, if you will,
like so many ant-hills of powder, they all stand before me ;
and I their match. Oh, hard ! that to fire others, the
match itself must needs be wasting ! What I Ve dared,
I Ve willed ; and what I Ve willed, I '11 do ! They think
me mad Starbuck does ; but I 'm demoniac, I am mad-
ness maddened ! That wild madness that 's only calm
to comprehend itself ! The prophecy was that I should
be dismembered ; and Ay ! I lost this leg. I now
prophesy that I will dismember my dismemberer. JJow*
then, be the prophet and the fulfiUer one. That 's more
than ye, ye great gods, ever were. I laugh and hoot at
ye, ye cricket -players, ye pugilists, ye deaf Burkes and
blinded Bendigoes ! I will not say as schoolboys do to
bullies, Take some one of your own size ; don't pommel
me \ No, ye Ve knocked me down, and I am up again ;
but ye have run and hidden. Come forth from behind
your cotton bags ! I have no long gun to reach ye.
Come, Ahab's compliments to ye ; come and see if ye can
swerve me. Swerve me ? ye cannot swerve me, else ye
swerve yourselves ! man has ye there. Swerve me ?
The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, where -
on" my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges,
through the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents'
beds, unerringly I rush ! Naught J s an obstacle, naught 's
an angle to the iron way !
CHAPTER XXXVIII
DUSK
(By the mainmast ; Starbuck leaning against it.)
MY soul is* more than matched ; she 's overmanned ;
and by a madman ! Insufferable sting, that sanity should
ground arms on such a field ! But he drilled deep down,
and blasted all my reason out of me ! I think I see his
impious end ; but feel that I must help him to it. Will I,
nill I, the ineffable thing has tied me to him ; tows me
with a cable I have no knife to cut. Horrible old man !
Who 's over him, he cries ; ay, he would be a democrat \^
to all above ; look, how he lords it over all below ! Oh !
I plainly see my miserable office, to obey, rebelling ; and
worse yet, to hate with touch of pity ! For in his eyes I
read some lurid woe would shrivel me up, had I it. Yet
is there hope. Time and tide flow wide. The hated
whale has the round watery world to swim in, as the small
gold-fish has its glassy globe. His heaven-insulting pur-
pose, God may wedge aside. I would up heart, were it
not like lead. But my whole clock 's run down ; my
heart the all-controlling weight, I have no key to lift
again.
(A burst of revelry from the forecastle.)
Oh, God ! to sail with such a heathen crew that have
small touch of human mothers in them ! Whelped some-
where by the sharkish sea. The White Whale is their
demigorgon. Hark ! the infernal orgies ! that revelry
is forward ! mark the unfaltering silence aft ! Methinks
211
212
MOBY-DICK
it pictures life. Foremost through the sparkling sea
shoots on the gay, embattled, bantering bow, but only to
drag dark Ahab after it, where he broods within his stern-
ward cabin, builded over the dead water of the wake,
and further on, hunted by its wolfish gurglings. The long
howl thrills me through ! Peace ! ye revellers, and set
the watch ! Oh, life ! 'tis in an hour like this, with soul
beat down and held to knowledge, as wild, untutored
things are forced to feed Oh, life ! 'tis now that I do feel
the latent horror in thee ! but 'tis not me ! that horror 's
out of me ! and with the soft feeling of ^ejiuman in me,
yet ^will I try to fight ye, "ye grim, phantom futures !
Stand by me, hold me, bind me, ye blessed influences !
CHAPTER XXXIX
FIRST NIGHT-WATCH
FORE-TOP
(Stubb solus, and mending a brace.)
HA ! ha ! ha ! ha ! hem ! clear my throat ! I Ve been
thinking over it ever since, and that ha, ha 3 s the final
consequence. Why so ? Because a laugh 's the wisest,
easiest answer to all that 's queer ; and come what will,
one comfort 's always left that unfailing comfort is, it 's
all predestinated. I heard not all his talk with Starbuck ;
but to my poor eye Starbuck then looked something as I
the other evening felt. Be sure the old Mogul has fixed
him, too. I twigged it, knew it ; had had the gift, might
readily have prophesied it for when I clapped my eye
upon his skull I saw it. Well, Stubb, wise Stubb that 's
my title well, Stubb, what of it, Stubb ? Here 's a
carcase. I know not all that may be coming, but be it
what it will, I '11 go to it laughing. Such a waggish
leering as lurks in all your horribles ! I feel funny. Fa,
la ! lirra, skirra ! What 's my juicy little pear at home
doing now ? Crying its eyes out ? Giving a party to the
last arrived harpooneers, I dare say, gay as a frigate's
pennant, and so am I fa, la ! lirra, skirra ! Oh
We '11 drink to-night with hearts as light,
To love, as gay and fleeting
As bubbles that swim, on the beaker's brim,
And break on the lips while meeting.
A brave stave that who calls ? Mr. Starbuck ?
Ay, ay, sir (Aside) he 's my superior, he has his too,
if I 'm not mistaken. Ay, ay, sir, just through with this
job coming.
213
CHAPTER XL
MIDNIGHT, FORECASTLE
HABPOONEERS AND SAILORS
(Foresail rises and discovers the match standing, lounging,
leaning, and lying in various attitudes, all singing in chorus.)
Farewell and adieu to you, Spanish ladies !
Farewell and adieu to you, ladies of Spain !
Our captain's commanded.
1ST NANTUCKET SAILOE.
Oh, boys, don't be sentimental ; it 's bad for the
digestion ! Take a tonic, follow me !
(Sings, and all follow.)
Our captain stood upon the deck,
A spy-glass in his hand,
A-viewing of those gallant whales
That blew at every strand.
Oh, your tubs in your boats, my boys,
And by your braces stand,
And we '11 have one of those fine whales,
Hand, boys, over hand !
So, be cheery, my lads ! may your hearts never fail !
While the bold harpooneer is striking the whale !
MATE'S VOICE FROM THE QUARTER-DECK.
Eight bells there, forward !
214
MIDNIGHT, FORECASTLE 215
2ND NANTUCKET SAILOR.
Avast the chorus ! Eight bells there ! <T ye hear,
bell-boy ? Strike the bell eight, thou Pip ! thou black-
ling ! and let me call the watch. I 've the sort of mouth
for that the hogshead mouth. So, so, (thrusts his head
down the scuttle) Star bo-1-e-e-n-s, a-h-o-y ! Eight
bells there below ! Tumble up !
DUTCH SAILOR.
Grand snoozing to-night, maty ; fat night for that.
I mark this in our old Mogul's wine ; it 's quite as deaden-
ing to some as filliping to others. We sing ; they sleep-
ay, lie down there, like ground-tier butts. At 'em again !
There, take this copper-pump, and hail 'em through it.
Tell 'em to avast dreaming of their lasses. Tell 'em it 's
the resurrection ; they must kiss their last, and come to
judgment. That 's the way that 's it ; thy throat ain't
spoiled with eating Amsterdam butter.
FRENCH SAILOR.
Hist, boys ! let 's have a jig or two before we ride to
anchor in Blanket Bay. What say ye ? There comes
the other watch. Stand by, all legs ! Pip ! little Pip !
hurrah with your tambourine !
PIP.
(Sulky and sleepy.)
Don't know where it is.
FRENCH SAILOR.
Beat thy belly, then, and wag thy ears. Jig it, men,
I say ; merry 's the word ; hurrah ! Damn me, won't
you dance ? Form, now, Indian-file, and gallop into the
double-shuffle ! Throw yourselves ! Legs ! legs !
216 MOBY-DICK
ICELAND SAILOE.
I don't like your floor, maty ; it 's too springy to my
taste. I 'm used to ice-floors. I 'm sorry to throw cold
water on the subject ; but excuse me.
MALTESE SAILOR.
Me too ; where 's your girls ? Who but a fool would
take his left hand by his right, and say to himself, how
d' ye do ? Partners ! I must have partners !
SICILIAN SAILOR.
Ay ; girls and a green ! then I '11 hop with ye ; yea,
turn grasshopper !
LONG-ISLAND SAILOR.
Well, well, ye sulkies, there 's plenty more of us. Hoe
corn when you may, say I. All legs go to harvest soon.
Ah ! here comes the music ; now for it !
AZORE SAILOR.
(Ascending, and pitching the tambourine up the scuttle.)
Here you are, Pip ; and there J s the windlass-bitts ;
up you mount ! Now, boys !
(The half of them dance to the tambourine ; some go
below ; some sleep or lie among the coils of rigging. Oaths
a-plenty.)
AZORE SAILOR.
(Dancing.)
Go it, Pip ! Bang it, bell-boy ! Rig, it, dig it, stig it,
quig it, bell-boy ! Make fire-flies ; break the jinglers !
PIP.
Jinglers, you say ? there goes another, dropped off ;
I pound it so.
MIDNIGHT, FORECASTLE 217
CHINA SAILOR.
Rattle thy teeth, then, and pound away ; make a
pagoda of thyself.
FRENCH SAILOR.
Merry-mad ! Hold up thy hoop, Pip, till I jump
through it ! Split jibs ! tear yourselves !
TASHTEGO.
(Quietly smoking.)
That 's a white man ; he calls that fun : humph ! I j
save my sweat.
OLD MANX SAILOR.
I wonder whether those jolly lads bethink them of what
they are dancing over. I '11 dance over your grave, I will
that 's the bitterest threat of your night-women, that
beat head- winds round corners. O Christ ! to think of
the green navies and the green-skulled crews ! Well,
well ; belike the whole world 's a ball, as you scholars
have it ; and so 'tis right to make one ball-room of it.
Dance on, lads, you 're young ; I was once.
3RD NANTUCKET SAILOR.
Spell oh ! whew ! this is worse than pulling after
whales in a calm give us a whiff, Tash.
(They cease dancing, and gather in clusters. Meantime
the sky darkens the wind rises.)
LASCAR SAILOR.
By Brahma ! boys, it '11 be douse sail soon. The
sky-born, high -tide Ganges turned to wind ! Thou
showest thy black brow, Seeva !
218 MOBY-DICK
MALTESE SAILOR.
(Reclining and shaking his cap.)
It 's the waves the snow's caps turn to jig it now.
They '11 shake their tassels soon. Now would all the
waves were women, then I 'd go drown, and chassee with
them evermore ! There 's naught so sweet on earth
heaven may not match it ! as those swift glances of
warm, wild bosoms in the dance, when the over-arbour-
ing arms hide such ripe, bursting grapes.
SICILIAN SAILOE.
(Reclining.)
Tell me not of it ! Hark ye, lad fleet interfacings of
the limbs lithe swayings covings flutterings ! lip !
heart ! hip ! all graze : unceasing touch and go ! not
taste, observe ye, else come satiety. Eh, Pagan ?
(Nudging.)
TAHITIAN SAILOR.
(Reclining on a mat.)
Hail, holy nakedness of our dancing girls ! the Heeva-
Heeva ! Ah ! low-veiled, high-palmed Tahiti ! I still
rest me on thy mat, but the soft soil has slid ! I saw
thee woven in the wood, my mat ! green the first day I
brought ye thence ; now worn and wilted quite. Ah me !
not thou nor I can bear the change ! How then, if so
be transplanted to yon sky ? Hear I the roaring streams
from Pirohitee's peak of spears, when they leap down the
crags and drown the villages ? The blast ! the blast !
Up, spine, and meet it ! (Leaps to his feet.)
MIDNIGHT, FORECASTLE 219
PORTUGUESE SAILOR.
How the sea rolls swashing 'gainst the side ! Stand
by for reefing, hearties ! the winds are just crossing
swords, pell-mell they '11 go lunging presently.
DANISH SAILOR.
Crack, crack, old ship ! so long as thou crackest, thou
boldest ! Well done ! The mate there holds ye to it
stiffly. He 's no more afraid than the isle fort at Cattegat,
put there to fight the Baltic with storm-lashed guns, on
which the sea-salt cakes !
4TH NANTUCKET SAILOR.
He has his orders, mind ye that. I heard old Ahab
tell him he must always kill a squall, something as they
burst a waterspout with a pistol fire your ship right
into it !
ENGLISH SAILOR.
Blood ! but that old man 's a grand old cove ! We are
the lads to hunt him up his whale !
ALL.
Ay ! ay !
OLD MANX SAILOR.
How the three pines shake ! Pines are the hardest sort
of tree to live when shifted to any other soil, and here
there 's none but the crew's cursed clay. Steady, helms-
man ! steady. This is the sort of weather when brave
hearts snap ashore, and keeled hulls split at sea. Our
captain has his birth-mark ; look yonder, boys, there 's
another in the sky lurid-like, ye see, all else pitch black.
DAGGOO.
What of that ? Who 's afraid of black 's afraid of me !
I 'm quarried out of it !
220 MOBY-DICK
SPANISH SAILOR.
(Aside.) He wants to bully, ah ! the old grudge
makes me touchy. (Advancing.) Ay, harpooneer, thy
race is the undeniable dark side of mankind devilish
dark at that. No offence.
DAGGOO (grimly).
None.
ST. JAGO'S SAILOR.
That Spaniard 's mad or drunk. But that can't be,
or else in his one case our old Mogul's fire-waters are
somewhat long in working.
5TH NANTUCKET SAILOR.
What 's that I saw lightning ? Yes.
SPANISH SAILOR.
No ; Daggoo showing his teeth.
DAGGOO (springing).
Swallow thine, manikin ! White skin, white liver !
SPANISH SAILOR (meeting him).
Knife thee heartily ! big frame, small spirit !
ALL.
A row ! a row ! a row !
TASHTEGO (with a whiff).
A row alow, and a row aloft Gods and men both
brawlers ! Humph !
BELFAST SAILOR.
A row ! arrah a row ! The Virgin be blessed, a row !
Plunge in with ye !
MIDNIGHT, FORECASTLE 221
ENGLISH SAILOR.
Fair play ! Snatch the Spaniard's knife ! A ring, a
ring !
OLD MANX SAILOR.
Ready formed. There ! the ringed horizon. In that
ring Cain struck Abel. Sweet work, right work ! No ?
Why then, God, mad'st thou the ring ?
MATE'S VOICE FROM THE QUARTER-DECK.
Hands by the halyards ! in top-gallant-sails ! Stand
by to reef topsails !
ALL.
The squall ! the squall ! jump, my jollies ! (They
scatter.)
PIP (shrinking under the windlass).
Jollies ? Lord help such jollies ! Crish, crash ! there
goes the jib-stay ! Blang-whang ! God ! Duck lower,
Pip, here comes the royal yard ! It 's worse than being
in the whirled woods, the last day of the year ! Who 'd
go climbing after chestnuts now ? But there they go,
all cursing, and here I don't. Fine prospects to 'em ;
they 're on the road to heaven. Hold on hard ! Jimmini,
what a squall ! But those chaps there are worse yet
they are your white squalls, they. White squalls ? white
whale, shirr ! shirr ! Here have I heard all their chat
just now, and the White Whale shirr ! shirr ! but
spoken of once ! and only this evening it makes me
jingle all over like my tambourine that anaconda of
an old man swore 'em in to hunt him ! Oh, thou big
white God aloft there somewhere in yon darkness, have
mercy on this small black boy down here ; preserve him
from all men that have no bowels to feel fear !
*******
CHAPTER XLI
MOBY-DICK
I, ISHMAEL, was one of that crew ; my shouts had gone
up with the rest ; my oath had been welded with theirs ;
and stronger I shouted, and more did I hammer and clinch
my oath, because of the dread in my soul. A wild,
mystical, sympathetical feeling was in me ; Ahab's
quenchless feud seemed mine. With greedy ears I
learned the history of that murderous monster against
whom I and all the others had taken our oaths of violence
and revenge.
For some time past, though at intervals only, the un-
accompanied, secluded White Whale had haunted those
uncivilised seas mostly frequented by the sperm whale
fishermen. But not all of them knew of his existence ;
only a few of them, comparatively, had knowingly seen
him ; while the number who as yet had actually and
knowingly given battle to him, was small indeed. For,
owing to the large number of whale-cruisers ; the dis-
orderly way they were sprinkled over the entire watery
circumference, many of them adventurously pushing
their quest along solitary latitudes, so as seldom or never
for a whole twelvemonth or more on a stretch, to en-
counter a single news-telling sail of any sort ; the inordin-
ate length of each separate voyage ; the irregularity of the
times of sailing from home ; all these, with other circum-
stances, direct and indirect, long obstructed the spread
through the whole world- wide whaling-fleet of the special
individualising tidings concerning Moby-Dick. It was
222
MOBY-DICK 223
hardly to be doubted, that several vessels reported to have
encountered, at such or such a time, or on such or such a
meridian, a sperm whale of uncommon magnitude and
malignity, which whale, after doing great mischief to his
assailants, had completely escaped them ; to some minds
it was not an* unfair presumption, I say, that the whale
in question must have been no other than Moby-Dick.
Yet as of late the sperm whale fishery had been marked
by various and not unfrequent instances of great ferocity,
cunning, and malice in the monster attacked ; therefore
it was, that those who by accident ignorantly gave battle
to Moby-Dick ; such hunters, perhaps, for the most part,
were content to ascribe the peculiar terror he bred, more,
as it were, to the perils of the sperm whale fishery at
large, than to the individual cause. In that way, mostly,
the disastrous encounter between Ahab and the whale
had hitherto been popularly regarded.
And as for those who, previously hearing of the White
Whale, by chance caught sight of him ; in the beginning
of the thing they had every one of them, almost, as boldly
and fearlessly lowered for him, as for any other whale of
that species. But at length, such calamities did ensue
in these assaults not restricted to sprained wrists and
ankles, broken limbs, or devouring amputations but
fatal to the last degree of fatality ; those repeated disas-
trous repulses, all accumulating and piling their terrors
upon Moby -Dick ; those things had gone far to shake the
fortitude of many brave hunters, to whom the story of
the White Whale had eventually come.
Nor did wild rumours of all sorts fail to exaggerate, and
still the more horrify the true histories of these deadly
encounters. For not only do fabulous rumours naturally
grow out of the very body of all surprising terrible events,
as the smitten tree gives birth to its fungi ; but, in
maritime life, far more than in that of terra-firma, wild
224 MOBY-DICK
rumours abound, wherever there is any adequate reality
for them to cling to. And as the sea surpasses the land
in this matter, so the whale-fishery surpasses every other
sort of maritime life, in the wonderfulness and fearful-
ness of the rumours which sometimes circulate there.
For not only are whalemen as a body unexempt from that
ignorance and superstitiousness hereditary to all sailors ;
but of all sailors, they are by all odds the most directly
brought into contact with whatever is appallingly astonish-
ing in the sea ; face to face they not only eye its greatest
marvels, but, hand to jaw, give battle to them. Alone,
in such remotest waters, that though you sailed a thousand
miles, and passed a thousand shores, you would not come
to any chiselled hearthstone, or aught hospitable beneath
that part of the sun ; in such latitudes and longitudes,
pursuing too such a calling as he does, the whaleman is
wrapped by influences all tending to make his fancy
pregnant with many a mighty birth.
No wonder, then, that ever gathering volume from the
mere transit over the wildest watery spaces, the outblown
rumours of the White Whale did in the end incorporate
with themselves all manner of morbid hints, and half-
formed foetal suggestions of supernatural agencies, which
eventually invested Moby-Dick with new terrors un-
borrowed from anything that visibly appears. So that in
many cases such a panic did he finally strike, that few
who by those rumours, at least, had heard of the White
Whale, few of those hunters were willing to encounter the
perils of his jaw.
But there were still other and more vital practical
influences at work. Not even at the present day has the
original prestige of the sperm whale, as fearfully dis-
tinguished from all other species of the leviathan, died out
of the minds of the whalemen as a body. There are those
this day among them, who, though intelligent and cour-
MOBY-DICK 225
ageous enough in offering battle to the Greenland or right
whale, would perhaps, either from professional inexperi-
ence, or incompetency, or timidity, decline a contest with
the sperm whale ; at any rate, there are plenty of whale-
men, especially among those whaling nations not sailing
under the American flag, who have never hostilely en-
countered the sperm whale, but whose sole knowledge
of the leviathan is restricted to the ignoble monster
primitively pursued in the North ; seated on their
hatches, these men will hearken with a childish fireside
interest and awe, to the wild, strange tales of Southern
whaling. Nor is the pre-eminent tremendousness of the
great sperm whale anywhere more feelingly compre-
hended, than on board of those prows which stem him.
And as if the now tested reality of his might had in
former legendary times thrown its shadow before it ; we
find some book naturalists Olassen and Povelson
declaring the sperm whale not only to be a consternation
to every other creature in the sea, but also to be so in-
credibly ferocious as continually to be athirst for human \
blood. Nor even down to so late a time as Cuvier's, were
these or almost similar impressions effaced. For in his
Natural History, the Baron himself affirms that at
sight of the sperm whale, all fish (sharks included) are
'struck with the most lively terrors,' and 'often in the
precipitancy of their flight dash themselves against the
rocks with such violence as to cause instantaneous death.'
And however the general experiences in the fishery may
amend such reports as these ; yet in their full terribleness,
even to the bloodthirsty item of Povelson, the super-
stitious belief in them is, in some vicissitudes of their
vocation, revived in the minds of the hunters.
So that overawed by the rumours and portents concern-
ing him, not a few of the fishermen recalled, in reference
to Moby-Dick, the earlier days of the sperm whale fishery,
VOL. i. p
226 MOBY-DICK
when it was oftentimes hard to induce long -practised right
whalemen to embark in the perils of this new and daring
warfare ; such men protesting that although other
leviathans might be hopefully pursued, yet to chase and
point lance at such an apparition as the sperm whale was
not for mortal man. That to attempt it, would be inevit-
ably to be torn into a quick eternity. On this head,
there are some remarkable documents that may be
consulted.
Nevertheless, some there were, who even in the face of
these things were ready to give chase to Moby-Dick ; and
a still greater number who, chancing only to hear of him
distantly and vaguely, without the specific details of any
certain calamity, and without superstitious accompani-
ments, were sufficiently hardy not to flee from the battle
if offered.
One of the wild suggestings referred to, as at last coming
to be linked with the White Whale in the minds of the
superstitiously inclined, was the unearthly conceit that
Moby-Dick was ubiquitous ; that he had actually been
encountered in opposite latitudes at one and the same
instant of time.
Nor, credulous as such minds must have been, was
this conceit altogether without some faint show of super-
stitious probability. For as the secrets of the currents
in the seas have never yet been divulged, even to the
most erudite research ; so the hidden ways of the sperm
whale when beneath the surface remain, in great part,
unaccountable to his pursuers ; and from time to time
have originated the most curious and contradictory specu-
lations regarding them, especially concerning the mystic
modes whereby, after sounding to a great depth, he trans-
ports himself with such vast swiftness to the most widely
distant points.
It is a thing well known to both American and English
MOBY-DICK 227
whale-ships, and as well a thing placed upon authoritative
record years ago by Scoresby, that some whales have been
captured far north in the Pacific, in whose bodies have been
found the barbs of harpoons darted in the Greenland seas.
Nor is it to be gainsaid, that in some of these instances it
has been declared that the interval of time between the
two assaults could not have exceeded very many days.
Hence, by inference, it has been believed by some whale-
men, that the Nor'- West Passage, so long a problem to
man, was never a problem to the whale. So that here,
in the real living experience of living men, the prodigies
related in old times of the inland Strello mountain in
Portugal (near whose top there was said to be a lake in
which the wrecks of ships floated up to the surface) ;
and that still more wonderful story of the Arethusa
fountain near Syracuse (whose waters were believed to
have come from the Holy Land by an underground
passage) ; these fabulous narrations are almost fully
equalled by the realities of the whaleman.
Forced into familiarity, then, with such prodigies as
these ; and knowing that after repeated, intrepid assaults,
the White Whale had escaped alive ; it cannot be much
matter of surprise that some whalemen should go still
further in their superstitions ; declaring Moby-Dick not
only ubiquitous, but immortal (for immortality is but
ubiquity in time) ; that though groves of spears should
be planted in his flanks, he would still swim away un-
harmed ; or if indeed he should ever be made to spout
thick blood, such a sight would be but a ghastly decep-
tion ; for again in unensanguined billows hundreds of
leagues away, his unsullied jet would once more be seen.
But even stripped of these supernatural surmisings,
there was enough in the earthly make and incontestable
character of the monster to strike the imagination with
unwonted power. For, it was not so much his uncommon
228 MOBY-DICK
bulk that so much distinguished him from other sperm
whales, but, as was elsewhere thrown out a peculiar
snow-white wrinkled forehead, and a high, pyramidical
white hump. These were his prominent features ; the
tokens whereby, even hi the limitless, uncharted seas,
he revealed his identity, at a long distance, to those who
knew him.
The rest of his body was so streaked, and spotted, and
marbled with the same shrouded hue, that, in the end,
he had gained his distinctive appellation of the White
Whale ; a name, indeed, literally justified by his vivid
aspect, when seen gliding at high noon through a dark
blue sea, leaving a milky-way wake of creamy foam, all
spangled with golden gleamings.
Nor was it his unwonted magnitude, nor his remarkable
hue, nor yet his deformed lower jaw, that so much in-
vested the whale with natural terror, as that unexampled,
intelligent malignity which, according to specific accounts,
he had over and over again evinced in his assaults. More
than all, his treacherous retreats struck more of dismay
than perhaps aught else. For, when swimming before
his exulting pursuers, with every apparent symptom of
alarm, he had several times been known to turn round
suddenly, and, bearing down upon them, either stave
their boats to splinters, or drive them back in consterna-
tion to their ship.
Already several fatalities had attended his chase.
But though similar disasters, however little bruited
ashore, were by no means unusual in the fishery ; yet, in
most instances, such seemed the White Whale's infernal
aforethought of ferocity, that every dismembering or
death that he caused, was not wholly regarded as having
been inflicted by an unintelligent agent.
Judge, then, to what pitches of inflamed, distracted
fury the minds of his more desperate hunters were im-
MOBY-DICK 229
pelled, when amid the chips of chewed boats, and the
sinking limbs of torn comrades, they swam out of the
white curds of the whale's direful wrath into the serene,
exasperating sunlight, that smiled on, as if at a birth or
a bridal.
His three boats stove around him, and oars and men
both whirling in the eddies, one captain, seizing the line-
knife from his broken prow, had dashed at the whale,
as an Arkansas duellist at his foe, blindly seeking with a
six-inch blade to reach the fathom-deep life of the whale.
That captain was Ahab. And then it was, that suddenly
sweeping his sickle -shaped lower jaw beneath him, Moby-
Dick had reaped away Ahab's leg, as a mower a blade of
grass in the field. No turbaned Turk, no hired Venetian
or Malay, could have smote him with more seeming
malice. Small reason was there to doubt, then, that ever
since that almost fatal encounter, Ahab had cherished a
wild vindictiveness against the whale, all the more fell
for that in his frantic morbidness he at last came to
identify with him, not only all his bodily woes, but all
his intellectual and spiritual exasperations. The White
Whale swam before him as the monomaniac incarnation
of all those malicious agencies which some deep men
feel eating in them, till they are left living on with half
a heart and half a lung. That intangible malignity which
has been from the beginning ; to whose dominion even
the modern Christians ascribe one-half of the worlds ;
which the ancient Ophites of the East reverenced in their
statue devil ; Ahab did not fall down and worship it
like them ; but deliriously transferring its idea to the
abhorred White Whale, he pitted himself, all mutilated,
against it. All that most maddens and torments ; all
that stirs up the lees of things ; all truth with malice in
it ; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain ; all
the subtle demonisms of life and thought ; all evil, to
230 MOBY-DICK
crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically
assailable in Moby-Dick. He piled upon the whale's
white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt
by his whole race from Adam down ; and then, as if his
chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell
upon it.
It is not probable that this monomania in him took its
instant rise at the precise time of his bodily dismember-
ment. Then, in darting at the monster, knife in hand,
he had but given loose to a sudden, passionate, corporal
animosity ; and when he received the stroke that tore
him, he probably but felt the agonising bodily laceration,
but nothing more. Yet, when by this collision forced to
turn toward home, and for long months of days and weeks,
Ahab and anguish lay stretched together in one ham-
mock, rounding in mid- winter that dreary, howling Pata-
gonian Cape ; then it was, that his torn body and gashed
soul bled into one another ; and so interfusing, made him
mad. That it was only then, on the homeward voyage,
after the encounter, that the final monomania seized him,
seems all but certain from the fact that, at intervals during
the passage, he was a raving lunatic ; and, though un-
limbed of a leg, yet such vital strength yet lurked in his
Egyptian chest, and was moreover intensified by his
delirium, that his mates were forced to lace him fast,
even there, as he sailed, raving in his hammock. In a
strait -jacket, he swung to the mad rockings of the gales.
And, when running into more sufferable latitudes, the
ship, with mild stun '-sails spread, floated across the
tranquil tropics, and, to all appearances, the old man's
delirium seemed left behind him with the Cape Horn
swells, and he came forth from his dark den into the blessed
light and air ; even then, when he bore that firm, collected
front, however pale, and issued his calm orders once again ;
and his mates thanked God the direful madness was now
MOBY-DICK 231
gone ; even then, Ahab, in his hidden self, raved on.
Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline
thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become
transfigured into some still subtler form. Ahab's full
lunacy subsided not, but deepeningly contracted ; like
the unabated Hudson, when that noble Northman flows
narrowly, but unfathomably through the Highland gorge.
But, as in his narrow-flowing monomania, not one jot
of Ahab's broad madness had been left behind ; so in
that broad madness, not one jot of his great natural
intellect had perished. That before living agent, now
became the living instrument. If such a furious trope
may stand, his special lunacy stormed his general sanity,
and carried it, and turned all its concentrated cannon
upon its own mad mark ; so that far from having lost
his strength, Ahab, to that one end, did now possess a
thousand-fold more potency than ever he had sanely
brought to bear upon any one reasonable object.
This is much ; yet Ahab's larger, darker, deeper part
remains unhinted. But vain to popularise profundities,
and all truth is profound. Winding far down from within
the very heart of this spiked Hotel de Cluny where we
here stand however grand and wonderful, now quit it ;
and take your way, ye nobler, sadder souls, to those vast
Roman halls of Thermes ; where far beneath the fantastic
towers of man's upper earth, his root of grandeur, his
whole awful essence sits in bearded state ; an antique
buried beneath antiquities, and throned on torsoes !
So with a broken throne, the great gods mock that captive
king ; so like a Caryatid, he patient sits, upholding on
his frozen brow the piled entablatures of ages. Wind ye
down there, ye prouder, sadder souls ! question that
proud, sad king ! A family likeness ! ay, he did beget
ye> ye young exiled royalties ; and from your grim sire
only will the old State -secret come.
232 MOBY-DICK
Now, in his heart, Ahab had some glimpse of this,
namely : all my means are sane, my motive and my object
mad. Yet without power to kill, or change, or shun the
fact, he likewise knew that to mankind he did long dis-
. semble ; in some sort, did still. But that thing of his
dissembling was only subject to his perceptibility, not
to his will determinate. Nevertheless, so well did he
succeed in that dissembling, that when with ivory leg
he stepped ashore at last, no Nantucketer thought him
otherwise than but naturally grieved, and that to the
quick, with the terrible casualty which had overtaken
him.
The report of his undeniable delirium at sea was like-
wise popularly ascribed to a kindred cause. And so too,
all the added moodiness which always afterward, to the
very day of sailing in the Pequod on the present voyage,
sat brooding on his brow. Nor is it so very unlikely,
that far from distrusting his fitness for another whaling
voyage, on account of such dark symptoms, the calculating
people of that prudent isle were inclined to harbour the
conceit, that for those very reasons he was all the better
qualified and set on edge, for a pursuit so full of rage and
wildness as the bloody hunt of whales. Gnawed within
and scorched without, with the unfixed, unrelenting fangs
of some incurable idea ; such an one, could he be found,
would seem the very man to dart his iron and lift his
lance against the most appalling of all brutes. Or, if for
any reason thought to be corporeally incapacitated for
that, yet such an one would seem superlatively competent
to cheer and howl on his underlings to the attack. But
be all this as it may, certain it is, that with the mad
secret of his unabated rage bolted up and keyed in him,
Ahab had purposely sailed upon the present voyage with
the one only and all-engrossing object of hunting the White
Whale. Had any one of his old acquaintances on shore
MOBY-DICK 233
but half dreamed of what was lurking in him then, how
soon would their aghast and righteous souls have wrenched
the ship from such a fiendish man ! They were bent
on profitable cruises, the profit to be counted down in
dollars from the mint. He was intent on an audacious,
immitigable, and supernatural revenge.
Here, then, was this gray-headed, ungodly old man,
chasing with curses a Job's whale round the world, at the
head of a crew, too, chiefly made up of mongrel renegades,
and castaways, and cannibals morally enfeebled, also,
by the incompetence of mere unaided virtue or right-
mindedness mStarbuck, the invulnerable jollity of indiffer-
ence and recklessness in Stubb, and the pervading medioc-
rity in Flask. Such a crew, so officered, seemed specially
picked and packed by some infernal fatality to help Mm
to his monomaniac revenge. How it was that they so
aboundingly responded to the old man's ire by what
evil magic their souls were possessed, that at times his
hate seemed almost theirs ; the White Whale as much
their insufferable foe as his ; how all this came to be-
what the White Whale was to them, or how to their
unconscious understandings, also, in some dim, unsus-
pected way, he might have seemed the gliding great demon
of the seas of life, all this to explain, would be to dive
deeper than Ishmael can go. The subterranean miner
that works in us all, how can one tell whither leads his
shaft by the ever shifting, muffled sound of his pick ?
Who does not feel the irresistible arm drag ? What skiff
in tow of a seventy-four can stand still ? For one, I gave
myself up to the abandonment of the time and the place ;
but while yet all a-rush to encounter the whale, could see
naught in that brute but the deadliest ill.
CHAPTER XLII
THE WHITENESS OF THE WHALE
WHAT the White Whale was to Ahab has been hinted ;
what, at times, he was to me, as yet remains unsaid.
Aside from those more obvious considerations touching
Moby-Dick, which could not but occasionally awaken in
any man's soul some alarm, there was another thought,
or rather vague, nameless horror concerning him, which
at times by its intensity completely overpowered all the
rest ; and yet so mystical and well-nigh ineffable was it,
that I almost despair of putting it in a comprehensible
form. It was the whiteness of the whale that above all
things appalled me. But how can I hope to explain
myself here ; and yet, in some dim, random way, explain
myself I must, else all these chapters might be naught.
Though in many natural objects, whiteness refiningly
enhances beauty, as if imparting some special virtue of
its own, as in marbles, japonicas, and pearls ; and though
various nations have in some way recognised a certain
royal pre-eminence in this hue ; even the barbaric, grand
old kings of Pegu placing the title ' Lord of the White
Elephants ' above all their other magniloquent ascrip-
tions of dominion ; and the modern kings of Siam un-
furling the same snow-white quadruped in the royal
standard ; and the Hanoverian flag bearing the one figure
of a snow-white charger ; and the great Austrian Empire,
Caesarian, heir to overlording Rome, having for the
imperial colour the same imperial hue ; and though this
pre-eminence in it applies to the human race itself, giving
234
THE WHITENESS OF THE WHALE 235
the white man ideal mastership over every dusky tribe ;
and though, besides all this, whiteness has been even
made significant of gladness, for among the Romans a
white stone marked a joyful day ; and though in other
mortal sympathies and symbolisings, this same hue is
made the emblem of many touching, noble things the
innocence of brides, the benignity of age ; though among
the Bed Men of America the giving of the white belt of
wampum was the deepest pledge of honour ; though in
many climes, whiteness typifies the majesty of Justice
in the ermine of the Judge, and contributes to the daily
state of kings and queens drawn by milk-white steeds ;
though even in the higher mysteries of the most august
religions it has been made the symbol of the divine spot-
lessness and power ; by the Persian fire -worshippers, the
white forked flame being held the holiest on the altar ;
and in the Greek mythologies, Great Jove himself being
made incarnate in a snow-white bull ; and though to the
noble Iroquois, the mid-winter sacrifice of the sacred
White Dog was by far the holiest festival of their theology,
that spotless, faithful creature being held the purest
envoy they could send to the Great Spirit with the annual
tidings of their own fidelity ; and though directly from
the Latin word for white, all Christian priests derive the
name of one part of their sacred vesture, the alb or tunic,
worn beneath the cassock ; and though among the holy
pomps of the Romish faith, white is specially employed
in the celebration of the Passion of our Lord ; though
in the Vision of St. John, white robes are given to the
redeemed, and the four-and-twenty elders stand clothed
in white before the great white throne, and the Holy
One that sitteth there white like wool ; yet for all these
accumulated associations, with whatever is sweet, and
honourable, and sublime, there yet lurks an elusive some-
thing in the innermost idea of this hue, which strikes more
~
236 MOBY-DICK
of panic to the soul than that redness which affrights in
blood.
This elusive quality it is, which causes the thought of
whiteness, when divorced from more kindly associations,
and coupled with any object terrible in itself, to heighten
that terror to the furthest bounds. Witness the white
bear of the Poles, and the white shark of the Tropics ;
what but their smooth, flaky whiteness makes them the
transcendent horrors they are ? That ghastly whiteness
it is which imparts such an abhorrent mildness, even more
loathsome than terrific, to the dumb gloating of their
aspect. So that not the fierce-fanged tiger in his heraldic
coat can so stagger courage as the white-shrouded bear
or shark. 1
Bethink thee of the albatross, whence come those
clouds of spiritual wonderment and pale dread, in which
that white phantom sails in all imaginations ? Not
Coleridge first threw that spell ; but God's great, unflatter-
ing laureate, Nature. 2
1 With reference to the Polar bear, it may possibly be urged by him
who would fain go still deeper into this matter, that it is not the white-
ness, separately regarded, which heightens the intolerable hideousness of
that brute ; for, analysed, that heightened hideousness, it might be said,
only arises from the circumstance, that the irresponsible ferociousness of
the creature stands invested in the fleece of celestial innocence and love :
and hence, by bringing together two such opposite emotions in our minds,
the Polar bear frightens us with so unnatural a contrast. But even
assuming all this to be true ; yet, were it not for the whiteness, you
would not have that intensified terror.
As for the white shark, the white gliding ghostliness of repose in that
creature, when beheld in his ordinary moods, strangely tallies with the
same quality in the Polar quadruped. This peculiarity is most vividly
hit by the French in the name they bestow upon that fish. The Romish
mass for the dead begins with * Requiem eternam ' (eternal rest), whence
Requiem denominating the mass itself, and any other funereal music.
Now, in allusion to the white, silent stillness of death in this shark, and
the mild deadliness of his habits, the French call him Requin.
2 I remember the first albatross I ever saw. It was during a prolonged
gale, in waters hard upon the Antarctic seas. From my forenoon watch
below, I ascended to the overclouded deck ; and there, dashed upon the
main hatches, I saw a regal, feathery thing of unspotted whiteness, and
with a hooked, Roman bill sublime. At intervals, it arched forth its vast
THE WHITENESS OF THE WHALE 237
Most famous in our Western annals and Indian tradi-
tions is that of the White Steed of the Prairies ; a
magnificent milk-white charger, large -eyed, small-headed,
bluff-chested, and with the dignity of a thousand monarchs
in his lofty, over-scorning carriage. He was the elected
Xerxes of vast herds of wild horses, whose pastures in
those days were only fenced by the Rocky Mountains
and the Alleghanies. At their flaming head he westward
trooped it like that chosen star which every evening leads
on the hosts of light. The flashing cascade of his mane,
the curving comet of his tail, invested him with housings
more resplendent than gold and silver beaters could have
furnished him. A most imperial and archangelical appari-
tion of that unf alien, Western world, which to the eyes of
archangel wings, as if to embrace some holy ark. Wondrous flutterings
and throbbings shook it. Though bodily unharmed, it uttered cries, as
some king's ghost in supernatural distress. Through its inexpressible,
strange eyes, methought I peeped to secrets which took hold of God. As
strange eyes, metnougnt l peeped to secrets wnicn toofc hold 01 l*od. As I
Abraham before the angels, I bowed myself ; the white thing was so white, 1
its wings so wide, and in those forever exiled waters, I had lost the *
miserable warping memories of traditions and of towns. Long I gazed at
that prodigy of plumage. I cannot tell, can only hint, the things that
darted through me then. But at last I awoke ; and turning, asked a
sailor what bird was this. A goney, he replied. Goney ! I never had
heard that name before ; is it conceivable that this glorious thing ia
utterly unknown to men ashore ! never ! But some time after, I learned
that goney was some seaman's name for albatross. So that by no possi-
bility could Coleridge's wild Rhyme have had aught to do with those
mystical impressions which were mine, when I saw that bird upon our
deck. For neither had I then read the Rhyme, nor knew the bird to be
an albatross. Yet, in saying this, I do but indirectly burnish a little
brighter the noble merit of the poem and the poet.
I assert, then, that in the wondrous bodily whiteness of the bird chiefly
lurks the secret of the spell ; a truth the more evinced in this, that by a
solecism of terms there are birds called gray albatrosses ; and these I have
frequently seen, but never with such emotions as when I beheld the
Antarctic fowl.
But how had the mystic thing been caught? Whisper it not, and I
will tell ; with a treacherous hook and line, as the fowl floated on the sea.
At last the captain made a postman of it ; tying a lettered, leathern tally
round its neck, with the ship's time and place ; and then letting it
escape. But I doubt not, that leathern tally, meant for man, was taken
off in Heaven, when the white fowl flew to join the wing-folding, the
invoking, and adoring cherubim !
238 MOBY-DICK
the old trappers and hunters revived the glories of those
primeval times when Adam walked majestic as a god,
bluff -bo wed and fearless as this mighty steed. Whether
marching amid his aides and marshals in the van of
countless cohorts that endlessly streamed it over the
plains, like an Ohio ; or whether with his circumambient
subjects browsing all around at the horizon, the White
Steed gallopingly reviewed them with warm nostrils
reddening through his cool milkiness ; in whatever aspect
he presented himself, always to the bravest Indians he
was the object of trembling reverence and awe. Nor can
it be questioned from what stands on legendary record
of this noble horse, that it was his spiritual whiteness
chiefly, which so clothed him with divineness ; and that
this divineness had that in it which, though commanding
worship, at the same time enforced a certain nameless
terror.
But there are other instances where this whiteness loses
all that accessory and strange glory which invests it in
the White Steed and Albatross.
What is it that in the Albino man so peculiarly repels
and often shocks the eye, as that sometimes he is loathed
by his own kith and kin ! It is that whiteness which
invests him, a thing expressed by the name he bears.
The Albino is as well made as other men has no sub-
stantive deformity and yet this mere aspect of all-
pervading whiteness makes him more strangely hideous
than the ugliest abortion. Why should this be so ?
Nor, in quite other aspects, does Nature in her least
palpable but not the less malicious agencies, fail to enlist
among her forces this crowning attribute of the terrible.
From its snowy aspect, the gauntleted ghost of the
Southern seas has been denominated the White Squall.
Nor, in some historic instances, has the art of human
malice omitted so potent an auxiliary. How wildly it
THE WHITENESS OF THE WHALE 239
heightens the effect of that passage in Froissart, when,
masked in the snowy symbol of their faction, the desper-
ate White Hoods of Ghent murder their bailiff in the
market-place !
Nor, in some things, does the common, hereditary
experience of all mankind fail to bear witness to the
supernaturalism of this hue. It cannot well be doubted,
that the one visible quality in the aspect of the dead which
most appals the gazer, is the marble pallor lingering there ;
as if indeed that pallor were as much like the badge of
consternation in the other world, as of mortal trepidation
here. And from that pallor of the dead, we borrow the
expressive hue of the shroud in which we wrap them.
Nor even in our superstitions do we fail to throw the same
snowy mantle round our phantoms ; all ghosts rising in
a milk-white fog Yea, while these terrors seize us, let
us add, that even the king of terrors, when personified by
the evangelist, rides on his pallid horse.
Therefore, in his other moods, symbolise whatever
grand or gracious thing he will by whiteness, no man can
deny that in its profoundest idealised significance it calls
up a peculiar apparition to the soul.
But though without dissent this point be fixed, how is
mortal man to account for it ? To analyse it would
seem impossible. Can we, then, by the citation of some
of those instances wherein this thing of whiteness
though for the time either wholly or in great part stripped
of all direct associations calculated to impart to it aught
fearful, but, nevertheless, is found to exert over us the
same sorcery, however modified ; can we thus hope to
light upon some chance clue to conduct us to the hidden
cause we seek ?
Let us try. But in a matter like this, subtlety appeals
to subtlety, and without imagination no man can follow
another into these halls. And though, doubtless, some at
240 MOBY-DICK
least of the imaginative impressions about to be presented
may have been shared by most men, yet few perhaps were
entirely conscious of them at the time, and therefore may
not be able to recall them now.
Why to the man of untutored ideality, who happens to
be but loosely acquainted with the peculiar character of
the day, does the bare mention of Whitsuntide marshal
in the fancy such long, dreary, speechless processions of
slow-pacing pilgrims downcast and hooded with new-
fallen snow ? Or, to the unread, unsophisticated Protes-
tant of the Middle American States, why does the passing
mention of a White Friar or a White Nun, evoke such an
eyeless statue in the soul ?
Or what is there apart from the traditions of dungeoned
warriors and kings (which will not wholly account for it)
that makes the White Tower of London tell so much more
strongly on the imagination of an untravelled American
than those other storied structures, its neighbours the
Byward Tower, or even the Bloody ? And those sub-
limer towers, the White Mountains of New Hampshire,
whence, in peculiar moods, comes that gigantic ghostli-
ness over the soul at the bare mention of that name, while
the thought of Virginia's Blue Ridge is full of a soft, dewy,
distant dreaminess ? Or *why, irrespective of all latitudes
and longitudes, does thg name of the White Sea exert
such a spectralness over the fancy, while that of the
Yellow Sea lulls us with mortal thoughts of long lacquered
mild afternoons on the waves, followed by the gaudiest
and yet sleepiest of sunsets ? Or, to choose a wholly un-
substantial instance, purely addressed to the fancy, why,
in reading the old fairy tales of Central Europe, does ' the
tall pale man ' of the Hartz forests, whose changeless
pallor unrustlingly glides through the green of the groves
why is this phantom more terrible than all the whooping
imps of the Blocksburg ?
THE WHITENESS OF THE WHALE 241
Nor is it, altogether, the remembrance of her cathedral-
toppling earthquakes ; nor the stampedoes of her frantic
seas ; nor the tearlessness of arid skies that never rain ;
nor the sight of her wide field of leaning spires, wrenched
cope-stones, and crosses all adroop (like canted yards of
anchored fleets) ; and her suburban avenues of house-
walls lying over upon each other, as a tossed pack of
cards ; it is not these things alone which make tearless
Lima the strangest, saddest city thou canst see. For
Lima has taken the white veil ; and there is a higher
horror in this whiteness of her woe. Old as Pizarro,
this whiteness keeps her ruins forever new ; admits not
the cheerful greenness of complete decay ; spreads over
her broken ramparts the rigid pallor of an apoplexy that
fixes its own distortions.
I know that, to the common apprehension, this phe-
nomenon of whiteness is not confessed to be the prime
agent in exaggerating the terror of objects otherwise
terrible ; nor to the unimaginative mind is there aught
of terror in those appearances whose awfulness to another
mind almost solely consists in this one phenomenon,
especially when exhibited under any form at all approach-
ing to muteness or universality. What I mean by these
two statements may perhaps be respectively elucidated
by the following examples.
First : The mariner, when drawing nigh the coasts of
foreign lands, if by night he hear the roar of breakers,
starts to vigilance, and feels just enough of trepidation to
sharpen all his faculties ; but under precisely similar
circumstances, let him be called from his hammock to
view his ship sailing through a midnight sea of milky
whiteness as if from encircling headlands shoals of
combed white bears were swimming round him then he
feels a silent, superstitious dread ; the shrouded phantom
of the whitened waters is horrible to him as a real ghost ;
VOL. I. Q
242 MOBY-DICK
in vain the lead assures him he is still off soundings ; heart
and helm they both go down ; he never rests till blue
water is under him again. Yet where is the mariner who
will tell thee, ' Sir, it was not so much the fear of striking
hidden rocks, as the fear of that hideous whiteness that
so stirred me ' ?
Second : To the native Indian of Peru, the continual
sight of the snow-howdahed Andes conveys naught of
dread, except, perhaps, in the mere fancying of the eternal
frosted desolateness reigning at such vast altitudes, and
the natural conceit of what a fearfulness it would be to
lose oneself in such inhuman solitudes. Much the same
is it with the backwoodsman of the West, who with com-
parative indifference views an unbounded prairie sheeted
with driven snow, no shadow of tree or twig to break the
fixed trance of whiteness. Not so the sailor, beholding
the scenery of the Antarctic seas ; where at times, by
some infernal trick of legerdemain in the powers of frost
and air, he, shivering and half shipwrecked, instead of
rainbows speaking hope and solace to his misery, views
what seems a boundless churchyard grinning upon him
with its lean ice monuments and splintered crosses.
But thou sayest, methinks this white -lead chapter
about whiteness is but a white flag hung out from a craven
soul ; thou surrenderest to a hypo, Ishmael.
Tell me, why this strong young colt, foaled in some
peaceful valley of Vermont, far removed from all beasts
of prey why is it that upon the sunniest day, if you but
shake a fresh buffalo robe behind him, so that he cannot
even see it, but only smells its wild animal muskiness
why will he start, snort, and with bursting eyes paw the
ground in frenzies of affright ? There is no remem-
brance in him of any gorings of wild creatures in his green
northern home, so that the strange muskiness he smells
cannot recall to him anything associated with the experi-
THE WHITENESS OP THE WHALE 243
ence of former perils ; for what knows he, this New
England colt, of the black bisons of distant Oregon ?
No : but here thou beholdest even in a dumb brute, I.J^A
the instinct of the knowledge of the demonismjin the /* /
world. Though thousands of miles from Oregon, still
when he smells that savage musk, the rending, goring
bison herds are as present as to the deserted wild foal of
the prairies, which this instant they may be trampling
into dust.
Thus, then, the muffled rollings of a milky sea ; the
bleak rustlings of the festooned frosts of mountains ; the
desolate shiftings of the windrowed snows of prairies ;
all these, to Ishmael, are as the shaking of that buffalo
robe to the frightened colt !
Though neither knows where lie the nameless things of
which the mystic sign gives forth such hints ; yet with s
me, as with the colt, somewhere those things must exist.
Though in many of its aspects this visible world seems
formed in love, the invisible spheres were formed in fright.
But not yet have we solved the incantation of this
whiteness, and learned why it appeals with such power to
the soul ; and more strange and far more portentous
why, as we have seen, it is at once the most meaning
symbol of spiritual things, nay, the very veil of the
Christian's Deity ; and yet should be as it is, the intensi-
fying agent in things the most appalling to mankind.
Is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the
heartless voids and immensities of the universe, and thus
stabs us from behind with the thought of annihilation,
when beholding the white depths of the Milky Way ? Or
is it, that as in essence whiteness is not so much a colour
as the visible ^ absence^J_c^laar^ and at the same time the
concrete of all colours ; is it for these reasons that there
is such a dumb blankness, full of meaning, in a wide
landscape of snows a colourless, all-colour of atheism
244 MOBY-DICK
from which we shrink ? And when we consider that other
theory of the natural philosophers, that all other earthly
hues every stately or lovely emblazoning the sweet
tinges of sunset skies and woods ; yea, and the gilded
velvets of butterflies, and the butterfly cheeks of young
girls ; all these are but subtle deceits, not actually in-
herent in substances, but only laid on from without ; so
that all deified Nature absolutely paints like the harlot,
whose allurements cover nothing but the charnel-house
within ; and when we proceed further, and consider
that the mystical cosmetic which produces every one of
her hues, the great principle of light, forever remains
white or colourless in itself, and if operating without
medium upon matter, would touch all objects, even
tulips and roses, with its own blank tinge pondering all
this, the palsied universe lies before us a leper ; and like
wilful travellers in Lapland, who refuse to wear coloured
and colouring glasses upon their eyes, so the wretched
infidel gazes himself blind at the monumental white
shroud that wraps all the prospect around him. And of
all these things the Albino whale was the symbol. Wonder
ye then at the fiery hunt ?
CHAPTER XLIII
HARK !
' HIST ! Did you hear that noise, Cabaco ? '
It was the middle -watch : a fair moonlight ; the
seamen were standing in a cordon, extending from one
of the fresh-water butts in the waist, to the scuttle-butt
near the taffrail. In this manner, they passed the
buckets to fill the scuttle-butt. Standing, for the most
part, on the hallowed precincts of the quarter-deck, they
were careful not to speak or rustle their feet. From hand
to hand, the buckets went in the deepest silence, only
broken by the occasional flap of a sail, and the steady hum
of the unceasingly advancing keel.
It was in the midst of this repose, that Archy, one of
the cordon, whose post was near the after-hatches,
whispered to his neighbour, a Cholo, the words above.
' Hist ! did you hear that noise, Cabaco ? '
' Take the bucket, will ye, Archy ? what noise d' ye
mean ? '
' There it is again under the hatches don't you hear
it ? a cough it sounded like a cough.'
' Cough be damned ! Pass along that return bucket.'
' There again there it is ! it sounds like two or three
sleepers turning over, now ! '
' Caramba ! have done, shipmate, will ye ? It 's the
three soaked biscuits ye eat for supper turning over inside
of ye -nothing else. Look to the bucket ! '
4 Say what ye will, shipmate ; I 've sharp ears.'
' Ay, you are the chap, ain't ye, that heard the hum
245
246 MOBY-DICK
of the old Quakeress's knitting-needles fifty miles at sea
from Nantucket ; you 're the chap.'
' Grin away ; we '11 see what turns up. Hark ye,
Cabaco, there is somebody down in the after-hold that
has not yet been seen on deck ; and I suspect our old
Mogul knows something of it too. I heard Stubb tell
Flask, one morning-watch, that there was something of
that sort in the wind.'
' Tish ! the bucket ! '
CHAPTER XLIV
THE CHART
HAD you followed Captain Ahab down into his cabin
after the squall that took place on the night succeeding
that wild ratification of his purpose with his crew, you
would have seen him go to a locker in the transom, and
bringing out a large wrinkled roll of yellowish sea-charts,
spread them before him on his screwed-down table. Then
seating himself before it, you would have seen him intently
study the various lines and shadings which there met his
eye ; and with slow but steady pencil trace additional
courses over spaces that before were blank. At intervals,
he would refer to piles of old log-books beside him, wherein
were set down the seasons and places in which, on various
former voyages of various ships, sperm whales had been
captured or seen.
While thus employed, the heavy pewter lamp suspended
foi chains over his head, continually rocked with the motion
of the ship, and forever threw shifting gleams and shadows
of lines upon his wrinkled brow, till it almost seemed that
while he himself was marking out lines and courses on the
wrinkled charts, some invisible pencil was also tracing
lines and courses upon the deeply marked chart of his
forehead.
But it was not this night in particular that, in the
solitude of his cabin, Ahab thus pondered over his charts.
Almost every night they were brought out ; almost every
night some pencil marks were effaced, and others were
substituted. For with the charts of all four oceans before
247
248
MOBY-DICK
him, Ahab was threading a maze of currents and eddies,
with a view to the more certain accomplishment of that
monomaniac thought of his soul.
Now, to anyone not fully acquainted with the ways of
the leviathans, it might seem an absurdly hopeless task
thus to seek out one solitary creature in the unhooped
oceans of this planet. But not so did it seem to Ahab,
who knew the sets of all tides and currents ; and thereby
calculating the drif tings of the sperm whale's food ; and,
also, calling to mind the regular, ascertained seasons for
hunting him in particular latitudes ; could arrive at
reasonable surmises, almost approaching to certainties,
concerning the timeliest day to be upon this or that
ground in search of his prey.
So assured, indeed, is the fact concerning the periodical-
ness of the sperm whale's resorting to given waters, that
many hunters believe that, could he be closely observed
and studied throughout the world ; were the logs for one
voyage of the entire whale -fleet carefully collated, then
the migrations of the sperm whale would be found to
correspond in invariability to those of the herring -shoals
or the flights of swallows. On this hint, attempts have
been made to construct elaborate migratory charts of the
sperm whale. 1
Besides, when making a passage from one feeding-
ground to another, the sperm whales, guided by some
infallible instinct say, rather, secret intelligence from
1 Since the above was written, the statement is happily borne out by an
official circular, issued by Lieutenant Maury, of the National Observatory,
Washington, April 16th, 1851. By that circular, it appears that precisely
such a chart is in course of completion ; and portions of it are presented
in the circular. ' This chart divides the ocean into districts of five degrees
of latitude by five degrees of longitude ; perpendicularly through each
of which districts are twelve columns for the twelve months ; and hori-
zontally through each of which districts are three lines ; one to show the
number of days that have been spent in each month in every district, and
the two others to show the number of days in which whales, sperm or
right, have been seen.'
THE CHART 249
the Deity mostly swim in veins, as they are called ; con-
tinuing their way along a given ocean-line with such
undeviating exactitude, that no ship ever sailed her
course, by any chart, with one tithe of such marvellous
precision. Though, in these cases, the direction taken
by any one whale be straight as a surveyor's parallel, and
though the line of advance be strictly confined to its
own unavoidable, straight wake, yet the arbitrary vein
in which at these times he is said to swim, generally
embraces some few miles in width (more or less, as the
vein is presumed to expand or contract) ; but never
exceeds the visual sweep from the whale-ship's mast-
heads, when circumspectly gliding along this magic zone.
The sum is, that at particular seasons within that breadth
and along that path, migrating whales may with great
confidence be looked for.
And hence not only at substantiated times, upon well-
known separate feeding-grounds, could Ahab hope to
encounter his prey ; but in crossing the widest expanses
of water between those grounds he could, by his art, so
place and time himself on his way, as even then not to be
wholly without prospect of a meeting.
There was a circumstance which at first sight seemed to
entangle his delirious but still methodical scheme. But
not so in reality, perhaps. Though the gregarious sperm
whales have their regular seasons for particular grounds,
yet in general you cannot conclude that the herds which
haunted such and such a latitude or longitude this year,
say, will turn out to be identically the same with those
that were found there the preceding season ; though
there are peculiar and unquestionable instances where
the contrary of this has proved true. In general, the same
remark, only within a less wide limit, applies to the soli-
taries and hermits among the matured, aged sperm whales.
So that though Moby-Dick had in a former year been seen,
250 MOBY-DICK
for example, on what is called the Seychelle ground in the
Indian Ocean, or Volcano Bay on the Japanese coast ;
yet it did not follow, that were the Pequod to visit either
of those spots at any subsequent corresponding season,
she would infallibly encounter him there. So, too, with
some other feeding -grounds, where he had at times
revealed himself. But all these seemed only his casual
stopping-places and ocean-inns, so to speak, not his places
of prolonged abode. And where Ahab's chances of
accomplishing his object have hitherto been spoken of,
allusion has only been made to whatever wayside, ante-
cedent, extra prospects were his, ere a particular set time
or place were attained, when all possibilities would become
probabilities, and, as Ahab fondly thought, every possi-
bility the next thing to a certainty. That particular set
time and place were conjoined in the one technical phrase
the Season-on-the-Line. For there and then, for
several consecutive years, Moby-Dick had been periodic-
ally descried, lingering in those waters for a while, as the
sun, in its annual round, loiters for a predicted interval
in any one sign of the Zodiac. There it was, too, that
most of the deadly encounters with the White Whale had
taken place ; there the waves were storied with his deeds ;
there also was that tragic spot where the monomaniac old
man had found the awful motive to his vengeance. But
in the cautious comprehensiveness and unloitering vigi-
lance with which Ahab threw his brooding soul into this
unfaltering hunt, he would not permit himself to rest all
his hopes upon the one crowning fact above mentioned,
however flattering it might be to those hopes ; nor in the
sleeplessness of his vow could he so tranquillise his unquiet
heart as to postpone all intervening quest.
Now, the Pequod had sailed from Nantucket at the very
beginning of the Season-on-the-Line. No possible en-
deavour then could enable her commander to make the
THE CHART 251
great passage southward, double Cape Horn, and then
running down sixty degrees of latitude arrive in the
equatorial Pacific in time to cruise there. Therefore, he
must wait for the next ensuing season. Yet the prema-
ture hour of the Pequod's sailing had, perhaps, been
correctly selected by Ahab, with a view to this very com-
plexion of things. Because, an interval of three hundred
and sixty-five days and nights was before him ; an inter-
val which, instead of impatiently enduring ashore, he
would spend in a miscellaneous hunt ; if by chance the
White Whale, spending his vacation in seas far remote
from his periodical feeding-grounds, should turn up his
wrinkled brow off the Persian Gulf, or in the Bengal Bay,
or China Seas, or in any other waters haunted by his race.
So that Monsoons, Pampas, Nor'-Westers, Harmattans,
Trades ; any wind but the Levanter and Simoom, might
blow Moby-Dick into the devious zig-zag world-circle of
the Pequod's circumnavigating wake.
But granting all this ; yet, regarded discreetly and
coolly, seems it not but a mad idea, this ; that in the broad
boundless ocean, one solitary whale, even if encountered,
should be thought capable of individual recognition from
his hunter, even as a white-bearded Mufti in the thronged
thoroughfares of Constantinople ? Yes. For the peculiar
snow-white brow of Moby-Dick, and his snow-white hump,
could not but be unmistakable. And have I not tallied
the whale, Ahab would mutter to himself, as after poring
over his charts till long after midnight he would throw
himself back in reveries tallied him, and shall he escape ?
His broad fins are bored, and scalloped out like a lost
sheep's ear ! And here, his mad mind would run on in a
breathless race ; till a weariness and faintness of ponder-
ing came over him ; and in the open air of the deck he
would seek to recover his strength. Ah, God ! what
trances of torments does that man endure who is consumed
252 MOBY-DICK
with one unachieved revengeful desire. He sleeps with
clenched hands ; and wakes with his own bloody nails in
his palms.
Often, when forced from his hammock by exhausting
and intolerably vivid dreams of the night, which, resuming
his own intense thoughts through the day, carried them
on amid a clashing of frenzies, and whirled them round
and round in his blazing brain, till the very throbbing
of his life-spot became insufferable anguish ; and when,
was sometimes the case, these spiritual throes in him
heaved his being up from its base, and a chasm seemed
opening in him, from which forked flames and lightnings
shot up, and accursed fiends beckoned him to leap down
among them ; when this hell in himself yawned beneath
him, a wild cry would be heard through the ship ; and
with glaring eyes Ahab would burst from his state-room,
as though escaping from a bed that was on fire. Yet
these, perhaps, instead of being the unsuppressible
symptoms of some latent weakness, or fright at his own
resolve, were but the plainest tokens of its intensity. For,
at such times, crazy Ahab, the scheming, unappeasedly
steadfast hunter of the White Whale ; this Ahab that had
gone to his hammock, was not the agent that so caused
him to burst from it in horror again. The latter was the
eternal, living principle or soul in him ; and in sleep, being
for the time dissociated from the characterising mind,
which at other times employed it for its outer vehicle or
agent, it spontaneously sought escape from the scorching
contiguity of the frantic thing, of which, for the time, it
was no longer an integral. But as the mind does not
exist unless leagued with the soul, therefore it must have
been that, in Ahab's case, yielding up all his thoughts and
fancies to his one supreme purpose ; that purpose, by its
own sheer inveteracy of will, forced itself against gods
and devils into a kind of self-assumed, independent being
THE CHART 253
of its own. Nay, could grimly live and burn, while the
common vitality to which it was conjoined, fled horror-
stricken from the unbidden and unfathered birth. There-
fore, the tormented spirit that glared out of bodily eyes,
when what seemed Ahab rushed from his room, was for
the time but a vacated thing, a formless somnambulistic
being, a ray of living light, to be sure, but without an
object to colour, and therefore a blankness in itself. God
help thee, old man, thy thoughts have created a creature
in thee ; and he whose intense thinking thus makes him
a Prometheus ; a vulture feeds upon that heart forever ;
that vulture the very creature he creates.
CHAPTER XLV
THE AFFIDAVIT
So far as what there may be of a narrative in this book ;
and, indeed, as indirectly touching one or two very inter-
esting and curious particulars in the habits of sperm
whales, the foregoing chapter, in its earlier part, is as
important a one as will be found in this volume ; but
the leading matter of it requires to be still further and
more familiarly enlarged upon, in order to be adequately
understood, and moreover to take away any incredulity
which a profound ignorance of the entire subject may
induce in some minds, as to the natural verity of the main
points of this affair.
I care not to perform this part of my task methodically ;
but shall be content to produce the desired impression by
separate citations of items, practically or reliably known
to me as a whaleman ; and from these citations, I take
it, the conclusion aimed at will naturally follow of itself.
First : I have personally known three instances where
a whale, after receiving a harpoon, has effected a complete
escape ; and, after an interval (in one instance of three
years), has been again struck by the same hand, and slain ;
when the two irons, both marked by the same private
cipher, have been taken from the body. In the instance
where three years intervened between the flinging of the
two harpoons ; and I think it may have been something
more than that ; the man who darted them happening,
in the interval, to go in a trading-ship on a voyage to
Africa, went ashore there, joined a discovery party, and
254
THE AFFIDAVIT 255
penetrated far into the interior, where he travelled for a
period of nearly two years, often endangered by serpents,
savages, tigers, poisonous miasmas, with all the other
common perils incident to wandering in the heart of un-
known regions. Meanwhile, the whale he had struck
must also have been on its travels ; no doubt it had thrice
circumnavigated the globe, brushing with its flanks all
the coasts of Africa ; but to no purpose. This man and
this whale again came together, and the one vanquished
the other. I say I, myself, have known three instances
similar to this ; that is in two of them I saw the whales
struck ; and, upon the second attack, saw the two irons
with the respective marks cut in them, afterward taken
from the dead fish. In the three-year instance, it so fell
out that I was in the boat both times, first and last, and
the last time distinctly recognised a peculiar sort of huge
mole under the whale's eye, which I had observed there
three years previous. I say three years, but I am pretty
sure it was more than that. Here are three instances,
then, which I personally know the truth of ; but I have
heard of many other instances from persons whose veracity
in the matter there is no good ground to impeach.
Secondly : It is well known in the sperm whale fishery,
however ignorant the world ashore maybe of it, that there
have been several memorable historical instances where a
particular whale in the ocean has been at distant times
and places popularly cognisable. Why such a whale
became thus marked was not altogether arid originally
owing to his bodily peculiarities as distinguished from
other whales ; for however peculiar in that respect any
chance whale may be, they soon put an end to his peculi-
arities by killing him, and boiling him down into a peculi-
arly valuable oil. No : the reason was this : that from
the fatal experiences of the fishery there hung a terrible
prestige of perilousness about such a whale as there did
256 MOBY-DICK
about Rinaldo Rinaldini, insomuch that most fishermen
were content to recognise him by merely touching their
tarpaulins when he would be discovered lounging by them
on the sea, without seeking to cultivate a more intimate
acquaintance. Like some poor devils ashore that happen
to know an irascible great man, they make distant unob-
trusive salutations to him in the street, lest if they pursued
the acquaintance further, they might receive a summary
thump for their presumption.
But not only did each of these famous whales enjoy
great individual celebrity nay, you may call it an ocean-
wide renown ; not only was he famous in life and now is
immortal in forecastle stories after death, but he was
admitted into all the rights, privileges, and distinctions
of a name ; had as much a name indeed as Cambyses or
Caesar. Was it not so, O Timor Tom ! thou famed
leviathan, scarred like an iceberg, who so long didst lurk
in the oriental straits of that name, whose spout was oft
seen from the palmy beach of Ombay ? Was it not so,
New Zealand Jack ! thou terror of all cruisers that
crossed their wakes in the vicinity of the Tattoo Land?
Was it not so, Morquan ! King of Japan, whose lofty
jet they say at times assumed the semblance of a snow-
white cross against the sky ? Was it not so, Don
Miguel ! thou Chilian whale, marked like an old tortoise
with mystic hieroglyphics upon the back I In plain prose,
here are four whales as well known to the students of
Cetacean History as Marius or Sylla to the classic scholar.
But this is not all. New Zealand Tom and Don Miguel,
after at various times creating great havoc among the
boats of different vessels, were finally gone in quest of,
systematically hunted out, chased and killed by valiant
whaling-captains, who heaved up their anchors with that
express object as much in view, as in setting out through
the Narragansett Woods, Captain Butler of old had it
THE AFFIDAVIT 257
in his mind to capture that notorious murderous savage
Annawon, the headmost warrior of the Indian King
Philip.
I do not know where I can find a better place than just
here, to make mention of one or two other things, which
to me seem important, as in printed form establishing
in all respects the reasonableness of the whole story of
the White Whale, more especially the catastrophe. For
this is one of those disheartening instances where truth
requires full as much bolstering as error. So ignorant
are most landsmen of some of the plainest and most
palpable wonders of the world, that without some hints
touching the plain facts, historical and otherwise, of the
fishery, they might scout at Moby-Dick as a monstrous
fable, or still worse and more detestable, a hideous and
intolerable allegory.
First : Though most men have some vague flitting ideas
of the general perils of the grand fishery, yet they have
nothing like a fixed, vivid conception of those perils,
and the frequency with which they recur. One reason
perhaps is, that not one in fifty of the actual disasters and
deaths by casualties in the fishery, ever finds a public
record at home, however transient and immediately
forgotten that record. Do you suppose that that poor
fellow there, who this moment perhaps caught by the
whale-line off the coast of New Guinea, is being carried
down to the bottom of the sea by the sounding leviathan
do you suppose that that poor fellow's name will appear
in the newspaper obituary you will read to-morrow at
your breakfast ? No : because the mails are very
irregular between here and New Guinea. In fact, did
you ever hear what might be called regular news direct
or indirect from New Guinea ? Yet I tell you that
upon one particular voyage which I made to the Pacific,
among many others we spoke thirty different ships, every
VOL. j. B
258 MOBY-DICK
one of which had had a death by a whale, some of them
more than one, and three that had each lost a boat's crew.
For God's sake, be economical with your lamps and
candles ! not a gallon you burn, but at least one drop of
man's blood was spilled for it.
Secondly : People ashore have indeed some indefinite
idea that a whale is an enormous creature of enormous
power ; but I have ever found that when narrating to
them some specific example of this twofold enormousness,
they have significantly complimented me upon my
facetiousness ; when, I declare upon my soul, I had no
more idea of being facetious than Moses, when he wrote
the history of the plagues of Egypt.
But fortunately the special point I here seek can be
established upon testimony entirely independent of my
own. That point is this : The sperm whale is in some
cases sufficiently powerful, knowing, and judiciously
malicious, as with direct aforethought to stave in, utterly
destroy, and sink a large ship ; and what is more, the
sperm whale has done it.
First : In the year 1820 the ship Essex, Captain
Pollard, of Nantucket, was cruising in the Pacific Ocean.
One day she saw spouts, lowered her boats, and gave chase
to a shoal of sperm whales. Ere long, several of the
whales were wounded ; when, suddenly, a very large
whale escaping from the boats, issued from the shoal,
and bore directly down upon the ship. Dashing his
forehead against her hull, he so stove her in, that in less
than ' ten minutes ' she settled down and fell over. Not
a surviving plank of her has been seen since. After the
severest exposure, part of the crew reached the land in
their boats. Being returned home at last, Captain
Pollard once more sailed for the Pacific in command of
another ship, but the gods shipwrecked him again upon
unknown rocks and breakers ; for the second time his
THE AFFIDAVIT 259
ship was utterly lost, and forthwith forswearing the sea,
he has never tempted it since. At this day Captain Pollard
is a resident of Nantucket. I have seen Owen Chace,
who was chief mate of the Essex at the time of the tragedy ;
I have read his plain and faithful narrative ; I have
conversed with his son ; and all this within a few miles
of the scene of the catastrophe. 1
Secondly : The ship Union, also of Nantucket, was in
the year 1 807 totally lost off the Azores by a similar onset,
but the authentic particulars of this catastrophe I have
never chanced to encounter, though from the whale-
hunters I have now and then heard casual allusions to it.
Thirdly : Some eighteen or twenty years ago Commo-
dore J , then commanding an American sloop -of -war
of the first class, happened to be dining with a party of
whaling-captains, on board a Nantucket ship in the
1 The following are extracts from Chace's narrative : ' Every fact
seemed to warrant me in concluding that it was anything but chance
which directed his operations ; he made two several attacks upon the ship,
at a short interval between them, both of which, according to their
direction, were calculated to do us the most injury, by being made ahead,
and thereby combining the speed of the two objects for the shook ; to
effect which, the exact manoeuvres which he made were necessary. His
aspect was most horrible, and such as indicated resentment and fury. He
came directly from the shoal which we had just before entered, and in
which we had struck three of his companions, as if fired with revenge for
their sufferings.' Again : ' At all events, the whole circumstances taken
together, all happening before my own eyes, and producing, at the time,
impressions in my mind of decided, calculating mischief, on the part of
the whale (many of which impressions I cannot now recall), induce me to
be satisfied that I am correct in my opinion.'
Here are his reflections some time after quitting the ship, during a
black night in an open boat, when almost despairing of reaching any
hospitable shore. ' The dark ocean and swelling waters were nothing ;
the fears of being swallowed up by some dreadful tempest, or dashed
upon hidden rocks, with all the other ordinary subjects of fearful con-
templation, seemed scarcely entitled to a moment's thought ; the dismal-
looking wreck, and the horrid aspect and revenge of the whale, wholly
engrossed my reflections until day again made its appearance.'
In another place p. 45, he speaks of ' the mysterious and mortal
attack of the animal.'
260 MOBY-DICK
harbour of Oahu, Sandwich Islands. Conversation turn-
ing upon whales, the commodore was pleased to be scepti-
cal touching the amazing strength ascribed to them by the
professional gentlemen present. He peremptorily denied,
for example, that any whale could so smite his stout sloop-
of-war as to cause her to leak so much as a thimbleful.
Very good ; but there is more coming. Some weeks after,
the commodore set sail in this impregnable craft for
Valparaiso. But he was stopped on the way by a portly
sperm whale, that begged a few moments' confidential
business with him. That business consisted in fetching
the commodore's craft such a thwack, that with all his
pumps going he made straight for the nearest port to
heave down and repair. I am not superstitious, but I
consider the commodore's interview with that whale as
providential. Was not Saul of Tarsus converted from
unbelief by a similar fright ? I tell you, the sperm whale
will stand no nonsense.
I will now refer you to Langsdorff 's Voyages for a little
circumstance in point, peculiarly interesting to the writer
hereof. Langsdorff, you must know by the way, was
attached to the Russian Admiral Krusenstern's famous Dis-
co very Expedition in the beginning of the present century.
Captain Langsdorff thus begins his seventeenth chapter.
4 By the thirteenth of May our ship was ready to sail,
and the next day we were out in the open sea, on our way
to Ochotsh. The weather was very clear and fine, but
so intolerably cold that we were obliged to keep on our
fur clothing. For some days we had very little wind ;
it was not till the nineteenth that a brisk gale from the
north-west sprang up. An uncommon large whale, the
body of which was larger than the ship itself, lay almost
at the surface of the water, but was not perceived by any-
one on board till the moment when the ship, which was
in full sail, was almost upon him, so that it was impossible
THE AFFIDAVIT 261
to prevent its striking against him. We were thus placed
in the most imminent danger, as this gigantic creature,
setting up its back, raised the ship three feet at least out
of the water. The masts reeled, and the sails fell alto-
gether, while we who were below all sprang instantly
upon the deck, concluding that we had struck upon some
rock ; instead of this we saw the monster sailing off with
the utmost gravity and solemnity. Captain D'Wolf
applied immediately to the pumps to examine whether
or not the vessel had received any damage from the
shock, but we found that very happily it had escaped
entirely uninjured.'
Now, the Captain D'Wolf here alluded to as command-
ing the ship in question, is a New Englander, who, after
a long life of unusual adventures as a sea-captain, this
day resides in the village of Dorchester near Boston. I
have the honour of being a nephew of his. I have par-
ticularly questioned him concerning this passage in Langs-
dorfL He substantiates every word. The ship, however,
was by no means a large one : a Russian craft built on
the Siberian coast, and purchased by my uncle after
bartering away the vessel in which he sailed from home.
In that up and down manly book of old-fashioned
adventure, so full, too, of honest wonders the voyage
of Lionel Wafer, one of ancient Dampier's old chums
I found a little matter set down so like that just quoted
from Langsdorff, that I cannot forbear inserting it here
for a corroborative example, if such be needed.
Lionel, it seems, was on his way to ' John Ferdi-
nando,' as he calls the modern Juan Fernandez. ' In
our way thither,' he says, 'about four o'clock in the
morning, when we were about one hundred and fifty
leagues from the Main of America, our ship felt a terrible
shock, which put our men in such consternation that they
could hardly tell where they were or what to think ; but
262 MOBY-DICK
everyone began to prepare for death. And, indeed, the
shock was so sudden and violent, that we took it for granted
the ship had struck against a rock ; but when the amaze-
ment was a little over, we cast the lead, and sounded, but
found no ground. * * * The suddenness of the
shock made the guns leap in their carriages, and several of
the men were shaken out of their hammocks. Captain
Davis, who lay with his head on a gun, was thrown out
of his cabin ! ' Lionel then goes on to impute the shock
to an earthquake, and seems to substantiate the imputa-
tion by stating that a great earthquake, somewhere about
that time,, did actually do great mischief along the Spanish
land. But I should not much wonder if, in the darkness
of that early hour of the morning, the shock was after all
caused by an unseen whale vertically bumping the hull
from beneath.
I might proceed with several more examples, one way
or another known to me, of the great power and malice
at times of the sperm whale. In more than one instance,
he has been known, not only to chase the assailing boats
back to their ships, but to pursue the ship itself, and long
withstand all the lances hurled at him from its decks.
The English ship Pusie Hall can tell a story on that head ;
and, as for his strength, let me say, that there have been
examples where the lines attached to a running sperm
whale have, in a calm, been transferred to the ship, and
secured there ; the whale towing her great hull through
the water, as a horse walks off with a cart. Again, it is
very often observed that, if the sperm whale, once struck,
is allowed time to rally, he then acts, not so often with
blind rage, as with wilful, deliberate designs of destruction
to his pursuers ; nor is it without conveying some elo-
quent indication of his character, that upon being attacked
he will frequently open his mouth, and retain it in that
dread expansion for several consecutive minutes. But I
THE AFFIDAVIT 263
must be content with only one more and a concluding
illustration ; a remarkable and most significant one, by
which you will not fail to see, that not only is the most
marvellous event in this book corroborated by plain
facts of the present day, but that these marvels (like all
marvels) are mere repetitions of the ages ; so that for
the millionth time we say amen with Solomon Verily
there is nothing new under the sun.
In the sixth Christian century lived Procopius, a Chris-
tian magistrate of Constantinople, in the days when
Justinian was Emperor and Belisarius general. As many
know, he wrote the history of his own times, a work every
way of uncommon value. By the best authorities, he
has always been considered a most trustworthy and un-
exaggerating historian, except in some one or two par-
ticulars, not at all affecting the matter presently to be
mentioned.
Now, in this history of his, Procopius mentions that,
during the term of his prefecture at Constantinople, a
great sea-monster was captured in the neighbouring
Propontis, or Sea of Marmora, after having destroyed
vessels at intervals in those waters for a period of more
than fifty years. A fact thus set down in substantial
history cannot easily be gainsaid. Nor is there any
reason it should be. Of what precise species this sea-
monster was, is not mentioned. But as he destroyed
ships, as well as for other reasons, he must have been a
whale ; and I am strongly inclined to think a sperm whale.
And I will tell you why. For a long time I fancied that
the sperm whale had been always unknown in the Medi-
terranean and the deep waters connecting with it. Even
now I am certain that those seas are not, and perhaps
never can be, in the present constitution of things, a place
for his habitual gregarious resort. But further investi-
gations have recently proved to me, that in modern times
264 MOBY-DICK
there have been isolated instances of the presence of the
sperm whale in the Mediterranean. I am told, on good
authority, that on the Barbary coast, a Commodore
Davis of the British navy found the skeleton of a sperm
whale. Now, as a vessel of war readily passes through
the Dardanelles, hence a sperm whale could, by the same
route, pass out of the Mediterranean into the Propontis.
In the Propontis, as far as I can learn, none of that
peculiar substance called brit is to be found, the aliment
of the right whale. But I have every reason to believe
that the food of the sperm whale squid or cuttle-fish
lurks at the bottom of that sea, because large creatures,
but by no means the largest of that sort, have been found
at its surface. If, then, you properly put these statements
together, and reason upon them a bit, you will clearly
perceive that, according to all human reasoning, Pro-
copius's sea-monster, that for half a century stove the
ships of a Roman Emperor, must in all probability have
been a sperm whale.
CHAPTER XLVI
SURMISES
THOUGH, consumed with the hot fire of his purpose,
Ahab in all his thoughts and actions ever had in view the
ultimate capture of Moby-Dick ; though he seemed ready
to sacrifice all mortal interests to that one passion ; never-
theless it may have been that he was by nature and long
habituation far too wedded to a fiery whaleman's ways,
altogether to abandon the collateral prosecution of the
voyage. Or at least if this were otherwise, there were
not wanting other motives much more influential with
him. It would be refining too much, perhaps, even con-
sidering his monomania, to hint that his vindictiveness
toward the White Whale might have possibly extended
itself in some degree to all sperm whales, and that the
more monsters he slew, by so much the more he multiplied
the chances that each subsequently encountered whale
would prove to be the hated one he hunted. But if such
an hypothesis be indeed exceptionable, there were still
additional considerations which, though not so strictly
according with the wildness of his ruling passion, yet were
by no means incapable of swaying him.
To accomplish his object Ahab must use tools ; and
of all tools used in the shadow of the moon, men are most
apt to get out of order. He knew, for example, that
however magnetic his ascendency in some respects was
over Starbuck, yet that ascendency did not cover the
complete spiritual man any more than mere corporeal
superiority involves intellectual mastership ; for to the
265
266 MOBY-DICK
purely spiritual, the intellectual but stand in a sort of
corporeal relation. Starbuck's body and Starbuck's
coerced will were Ahab's, so long as Ahab kept his magnet
at Starbuck's brain ; still he knew that for all this the
chief mate, in his soul, abhorred his captain's quest, and
could he, would joyfully disintegrate himself from it,
or even frustrate it. It might be that a long interval
would elapse ere the White Whale was seen. During that
long interval Starbuck would ever be apt to fall into open
relapses of rebellion against his captain's leadership,
unless some ordinary, prudential, circumstantial influ-
ences were brought to bear upon him. Not only that,
but the subtle insanity of Ahab respecting Moby-Dick
was no ways more significantly manifested than in his
superlative sense and shrewdness in foreseeing that, for
the present, the hunt should in some way be stripped of
that strange imaginative impiousness which naturally
invested it ; that the full terror of the voyage must be
kept withdrawn into the obscure background (for few
men's courage is proof against protracted meditation
unrelieved by action) ; that when they stood their long
night-watches, his officers and men must have some nearer
things to think of than Moby-Dick. For however eagerly
and impetuously the savage crew had hailed the announce-
ment of his quest ; yet all sailors of all sorts are more or
less capricious and unreliable they live in the varying
outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness and when
retained for any object remote and blank in the pursuit,
however promissory of life and passion in the end, it is
above all things requisite that temporary interests and
employments should intervene and hold them healthily
suspended for the final dash.
Nor was Ahab unmindful of another thing. In times of
strong emotion mankind disdain all base considerations ;
but such times are evanescent. The permanent con-
SURMISES 267
stitutional condition of the manufactured man, thought
Ahab, is sordidness. Granting that the White Whale
fully incites the hearts of this my savage crew, and playing
round their savageness even breeds a certain generous
knight -errant ism in them, still, while for the love of it
they give chase to Moby-Dick, they must also have food
for their more common, daily appetites. For even the
high lifted and chivalric Crusaders of old times were not
content to traverse two thousand miles of land to fight
for their holy sepulchre, without committing burglaries,
picking pockets, and gaining other pious perquisites by
the way. Had they been strictly held to their one final
and romantic object that final and romantic object,
too many would have turned from in disgust. I will not
strip these men, thought Ahab, of all hopes of cash ay,
cash. They may scorn cash now ; but let some months
go by, and no perspective promise of it to them, and then \
this same quiescent cash all at once mutinying in them,
this same cash would soon cashier Ahab.
Nor was there wanting still another precautionary
motive more related to Ahab personally. Having im-
pulsively, it is probable, and perhaps somewhat pre-
maturely revealed the prime but private purpose of the
Pequod's voyage, Ahab was now entirely conscious that,
in so doing, he had indirectly laid himself open to the
unanswerable charge of usurpation ; and with perfect
impunity, both moral and legal, his crew if so disposed,
and to that end competent, could refuse all further
obedience to him, and even violently wrest from him the
command. From even the barely hinted imputation
of usurpation, and the possible consequences of such
a suppressed impression gaining ground, Ahab must of
course have been most anxious to protect himself. That
protection could only consist in his own predominating
brain and heart and hand, backed by a heedful, closely
268 MOBY-DICK
calculating attention to every minute atmospheric influ-
ence which it was possible for his crew to be subjected to.
For all these reasons then, and others perhaps too
analytic to be verbally developed here, Ahab plainly saw
that he must still in a good degree continue true to the
natural, nominal purpose of the Pequod's voyage ; observe
all customary usages ; and not only that, but force
himself to evince all his well-known passionate interest
in the general pursuit of his profession.
Be all this as it may, his voice was now often heard
hailing the three mast-heads and admonishing them to
keep a bright look-out, and not omit reporting even a
porpoise. This vigilance was not long without reward.
CHAPTER XLVII
THE MAT-MAKER
IT was a cloudy, sultry afternoon ; the seamen were
lazily lounging about the decks, or vacantly gazing over
into the lead-coloured waters. Queequeg and I were
mildly employed weaving what is called a sword-mat,
for an additional lashing to our boat. So still and
subdued and yet somehow preluding was all the scene,
and such an incantation of revelry lurked in the air,
that each silent sailor seemed resolved into his own
invisible self.
I was the attendant or page of Queequeg, while busy
at the mat. As I kept passing and repassing the filling
or woof of marline between the long yarns of the warp,
using my own hand for the shuttle, and as Queequeg,
standing sideways, ever and anon slid his heavy oaken
sword between the threads, and idly looking off upon
the water, carelessly and unthinkingly drove home every
yarn : I say so strange a dreaminess did there then reign
all over the ship and all over the sea, only broken by the
intermitting dull sound of the sword, that it seemed as
if this were the Loom of Time, and I myself were a shuttle
mechanically weaving and weaving away at the Fates.
There lay the fixed threads of the warp subject to but one
single, ever returning, unchanging vibration, and that
vibration merely enough to admit of the crosswise inter-
blending of other threads with its own. This warp
seemed necessity ; and here, thought I, with my own hand
I ply my own shuttle and weave my own destiny into these
269
270 MOBY-DICK
unalterable threads. Meantime, Queequeg's impulsive,
indifferent sword, sometimes hitting the woof slantingly,
or crookedly, or strongly, or weakly, as the case might
be ; and by this difference in the concluding blow pro-
ducing a corresponding contrast in the final aspect of the
completed fabric ; this savage's sword, thought I, which
thus finally shapes and fashions both warp and woof ; this
easy, indifferent sword must be chance ay, chance, free
will, and necessity no wise incompatible all inter-
weavingly working together. The straight warp of neces-
sity, not to be swerved from its ultimate course its every
/ alternating vibration, indeed, only tending to that ; free
will still free to ply her shuttle between given threads ;
and chance, though restrained in its play within the right
lines of necessity, and sideways in its motions directed
by free will, though thus prescribed to by both, chance
by turns rules either, and has the last featuring blow at
events.
*******
Thus we were weaving and weaving away when I
I started at a soundjgq strange, long drawn, and musically
I wild and unearthly, that the ball of free will dropped from
my hand, and I stood gazing up at the clouds whence that
voice dropped like a wing. High aloft in the cross-trees
was that mad Gay-Header, Tashtego. His body was
reaching eagerly forward, his hand stretched out like a
wand, and at brief sudden intervals he continued his cries.
To be sure, the same sound was that very moment perhaps
being heard all over the seas, from hundreds of whale-
men's look-outs perched as high in the air ; but from
few of those lungs could that accustomed old cry have
derived such a marvellous cadence as from Tashtego the
Indian's.
As he stood hovering over you half suspended in air,
so wildly and eagerly peering toward the horizon, you
THE MAT-MAKER 271
would have thought him some prophet or seer beholding
the shadows of Fate, and by those wild cries announcing
their coming.
' There she blows ! there ! there ! there ! she blows !
she blows ! '
4 Where away ? '
' On the lee-beam, about two miles off ! a school of
them ! '
Instantly all was commotion.
The sperm whale blows as a clock ticks, with the
same undeviating and reliable uniformity. And thereby
whalemen distinguish this fish from other tribes of
his genus.
' There go flukes ! ' was now the cry from Tashtego ;
and the whales disappeared.
4 Quick, steward ! ' cried Ahab. ' Time ! time ! '
Dough-Boy hurried below, glanced at the watch, and
reported the exact minute to Ahab.
The ship was now kept away from the wind, and she
went gently rolling before it. Tashtego reporting that
the whales had gone down heading to leeward, we con-
fidently looked to see them again directly in advance of
our bows. For that singular craft at times evinced by
the sperm whale when, sounding with his head in one
direction, he nevertheless, while concealed beneath the
surface, mills round, and swiftly swims off in the opposite
quarter this deceitfulness of his could not now be in
action ; for there was no reason to suppose that the fish
seen by Tashtego had been in any way alarmed, or indeed
knew at all of our vicinity. One of the men selected for
ship-keepers that is, those not appointed to the boats
by this time relieved the Indian at the mainmast-head.
The sailors at the fore and mizen had come down ; the
line-tubs were fixed in their places ; the cranes were
thrust out ; the main-yard was backed, and the three
272 MOBY-DICK
boats swung over the sea like three samphire baskets over
high cliffs. Outside of the bulwarks their eager crews with
one hand clung to the rail, while one foot was expectantly
poised on the gunwale. So look the long line of man-of-
war's men about to throw themselves on board an enemy's
ship.
But at this critical instant a sudden exclamation was
heard that took every eye from the whale. With a start
all glared at dark Ahab, who was surrounded by five dusky
phantoms that seemed fresh formed out of air.
CHAPTER XLVIII
THE FIRST LOWERING
THE phantoms, for so they then seemed, were flitting on
the other side of the deck, and, with a noiseless celerity,
were casting loose the tackles and bands of the boat which
swung there. This boat had always been deemed one
of the spare boats, though technically called the captain's,
on account of its hanging from the starboard quarter.
The figure that now stood by its bows was tall and swart,
with one white tooth evilly protruding from its steel-like
lips. A rumpled Chinese jacket of black cotton funereally
invested him, with wide black trowsers of the same dark
stuff. But strangely crowning this ebonness was a
glistening white plaited turban, the living hair braided
and coiled round and round upon his head. Less swart
in aspect, the companions of this figure were of that vivid,
tiger-yellow complexion peculiar to some of the aboriginal
natives of the Manillas ; a race notorious for a certain
diabolism of subtlety, and by some honest white mariners
supposed to be the paid spies and secret confidential
agents on the water of the devil, their lord, whose counting-
room they suppose to be elsewhere.
While yet the wondering ship's company were gazing
upon these strangers, Ahab cried out to the white-turbaned
old man at their head, ' All ready there, Fedallah ? '
' Ready,' was the half -hissed reply.
4 Lower away then ; d' ye hear ? ' shouting across the
deck. ' Lower away there, I say.'
Such was the thunder of his voice, that spite of their
VOL. i. s
274 MOBY-DICK
amazement the men sprang over the rail ; the sheaves
whirled round in the blocks ; with a wallow, the three
boats dropped into the sea ; while, with a dexterous, off-
handed daring, unknown in any other vocation, the sailors,
goat-like, leaped down the rolling ship's side into the
tossed boats below.
Hardly had they pulled out from under the ship's lee,
when a fourth keel, coming from the windward side,
pulled round under the stern, and showed the five strangers
rowing Ahab, who, standing erect in the stern, loudly
hailed Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask, to spread themselves
widely, so as to cover a large expanse of water. But with
all their eyes again riveted upon the swart Fedallah and
his crew, the inmates of the other boats obeyed not the
command.
' Captain Ahab ? ' said Starbuck.
' Spread yourselves,' cried Ahab ; ' give way, all four
boats. Thou, Flask, pull out more to leeward ! '
' Ay, ay, sir,' cheerily cried little King-Post, sweeping
round his great steering -oar. ' Lay back ! ' addressing
his crew. ' There ! there ! there again ! There she
blows right ahead, boys ! lay back ! '
' Never heed yonder yellow boys, Archy.'
' Oh, I don't mind 'em, sir,' said Archy ; ' I knew it all
before now. Didn't I hear 'em in the hold ? And didn't
I tell Cabaco here of it ? What say ye, Cabaco ? They
are stowaways, Mr. Flask.'
' Pull, pull, my fine hearts-alive ; pull, my children ;
pull, my little ones,' drawlingly and soothingly sighed
Stubb to his crew, some of whom still showed signs of
uneasiness. ' Why don't you break your backbones, my
boys ? What is it you stare at ? Those chaps in yonder
boat ? Tut ! They are only five more hands come to
help us never mind from where the more the merrier.
Pull, then, do pull ; never mind the brimstone devils
THE FIRST LOWERING 275
are good fellows enough. So, so ; there you are now ;
that 's the stroke for a thousand pounds ; that 's the
stroke to sweep the stakes ! Hurrah for the gold cup
of sperm oil, my heroes ! Three cheers, men all hearts-
alive ! Easy, easy ; don't be in a hurry don't be in a
hurry. Why don't you snap your oars, you rascals ?
Bite something, you dogs ! So, so, so, then ; softly,
softly ! That 's it that 's it ! long and strong. Give
way there, give way ! The devil fetch ye, ye ragamuffin
rapscallions ; ye are all asleep. Stop snoring, ye sleepers,
and pull. Pull, will ye ? pull, can't ye ? pull, won't ye ?
Why in the name of gudgeons and ginger-cakes don't ye
pull ? pull and break something ! pull, and start your
eyes out ! Here ! ' whipping out the sharp knife from his
girdle ; ' every mother's son of ye draw his knife, and pull
with the blade between his teeth. That J s it that 's it.
Now ye do something ; that looks like it, my steel-bits.
Start her start her, my silver-spoons ! Start her,
marling-spikes ! '
Stubb's exordium to his crew is given here at large,
because he had rather a peculiar way of talking to them
in general, and especially in inculcating the religion of
rowing. But you must not suppose from this specimen
of his sermonisings that he ever flew into downright
passions with his congregation. Not at all ; and therein
consisted his chief peculiarity. He would say the most
terrific things to his crew, in a tone so strangely com-
pounded of fun and fury, and the fury seemed so calcu-
lated merely as a spice to the fun, that no oarsman could
hear such queer invocations without pulling for dear
life, and yet pulling for the mere joke of the thing. Be-
sides he all the time looked so easy and indolent himself,
so loungingly managed his steering-oar, and so broadly
gaped open-mouthed at times that the mere sight of
such a yawning commander, by sheer force of contrast,
276 MOBY-DICK
acted like a charm upon the crew. Then again, Stubb
was one of those odd sort of humorists, whose jollity
is sometimes so curiously ambiguous, as to put all in-
feriors on their guard in the matter of obeying them.
In obedience to a sign from Ahab, Starbuck was now
pulling obliquely across Stubb 's bow ; and when for a
minute or so the two boats were pretty near to each other,
Stubb hailed the mate.
4 Mr. Starbuck ! larboard boat there, ahoy ! a word
with ye, sir, if ye please ! '
' Halloa ! ' returned Starbuck, turning round not a
single inch as he spoke ; still earnestly but whisperingly
urging his crew ; his face set like a flint from Stubb 's.
' What think ye of those yellow boys, sir ? '
' Smuggled on board, somehow, before the ship sailed.
(Strong, strong, boys ! ') in a whisper to his crew, then
speaking out loud again : ' A sad business, Mr. Stubb !
(Seethe her, seethe her, my lads !) but never mind, Mr.
Stubb, all for the best. Let all your crew pull strong,
come what will. (Spring, my men, spring !) There 's
hogsheads of sperm ahead, Mr. Stubb, and that 's what
ye came for. (Pull, my boys !) Sperm, sperm 's the
play ! This at least is duty ; duty and profit hand in
hand ! '
' Ay, ay, I thought as much,' soliloquised Stubb,
when the boats diverged, c as soon as I clapt eye on 'em,
I thought so. Ay, and that 's what he went into the
after-hold for, so often, as Dough -Boy long suspected.
They were hidden down there. The White Whale 's at
the bottom of it. Well, well, so be it ! Can't be helped !
All right ! Give way, men ! It ain't the White Whale
to-day ! Give way ! '
Now the advent of these outlandish strangers at such
a critical instant as the lowering of the boats from the
deck, this had not unreasonably awakened a sort of
THE FIRST LOWERING 277
superstitious amazement in some of the ship's company ;
but Archy's fancied discovery having some time previous
got abroad among them, though indeed not credited then,
this had in some small measure prepared them for the
event. It took off the extreme edge of their wonder ;
and so what with all this and Stubb's confident way of
accounting for their appearance, they were for the time
freed from superstitious surmisings ; though the affair
still left abundant room for all manner of wild conjectures
as to dark Ahab's precise agency in the matter from the
beginning. For me, I silently recalled the mysterious
shadows I had seen creeping on board the Pequod during
the dim Nantucket dawn, as well as the enigmatical
hintings of the unaccountable Elijah.
Meantime, Ahab, out of hearing of his officers, having
sided the furthest to windward, was still ranging ahead
of the other boats ; a circumstance bespeaking how potent
a crew was pulling him. Those tiger-yellow creatures of
his seemed all steel and whalebone ; like five trip-hammers
they rose and fell with regular strokes of strength, which
periodically started the boat along the water like a hori-
zontal burst boiler out of a Mississippi steamer. As for
Fedallah, who was seen pulling the harpooneer-oar, he
had thrown aside his black jacket, and displayed his
naked chest with the whole part of his body above the
gunwale, clearly cut against the alternating depressions
of the watery horizon ; while at the other end of the boat
Ahab, with one arm, like a fencer's, thrown half backward
into the air, as if to counterbalance any tendency to trip ;
Ahab was seen steadily managing his steering -oar as in a j
thousand boat lowerings ere the White Whale had torn(
him. All at once the outstretched arm gave a peculiar
motion and then remained fixed, while the boat's five oars
were seen simultaneously peaked. Boat and crew sat
motionless on the sea. Instantly the three spread boats
278 MOBY-DICK
in the rear paused on their way. The whales had irregu-
larly settled bodily down into the blue, thus giving no
distantly discernible token of the movement, though
from his closer vicinity Ahab had observed it.
4 Every man look out along his oars ! ' cried Starbuck.
' Thou, Queequeg, stand up ! '
Nimbly springing up on the triangular raised box in
the bow, the savage stood erect there, and with intensely
eager eyes gazed off toward the spot where the chase
had last been descried. Likewise upon the extreme stern
of the boat where it was also triangularly platformed level
with the gunwale, Starbuck himself was seen coolly and
adroitly balancing himself to the jerking tossings of his
chip of a craft, and silently eyeing the vast blue eye of
the sea.
Not very far distant Flask's boat was also lying breath-
lessly still ; its commander recklessly standing upon the
top of the logger-head, a stout sort of post rooted in the
keel, and rising some two feet above the level of the stern
platform. It is used for catching turns with the whale -
line. Its top is not more spacious than the palm of a
man's hand, and standing upon such a base as that, Flask
seemed perched at the mast-head of some ship which had
sunk to all but her trucks. But little King-Post was small
and short, and at the same time little King-Post was full
of a large and tall ambition, so that this logger-head stand-
point of his did by no means satisfy King-Post.
c I can't see three seas off ; tip us up an oar there, and
let me on to that.'
Upon this, Daggoo, with either hand upon the gunwale '
to steady his way, swiftly slid aft, and then erecting him-
self volunteered his lofty shoulders for a pedestal.
' Good a mast-head as any, sir. Will you mount ? '
' That I will, and thank ye very much, my fine fellow ;
only I wish you fifty feet taller.'
THE FIRST LOWERING 279
Whereupon planting his feet firmly against two opposite
planks of the boat, the gigantic negro, stooping a little,
presented his flat palm to Flask's foot, and then
putting Flask's hand on his hearse-plumed head and
bidding him spring as he himself should toss, with one
dexterous fling landed the little man high and dry on
his shoulders. And here was Flask now standing,
Daggoo with one lifted arm furnishing him with a breast-
band to lean against and steady himself by.
At any time it is a strange sight to the tyro to see with
what wondrous habitude of unconscious skill the whale-
man will maintain an erect posture in his boat, even when
pitched about by the most riotously perverse and cross-
running seas. Still more strange to see him giddily
perched upon the logger-head itself, under such circum-
stances. But the sight of little Flask mounted upon
gigantic Daggoo was yet more curious ; for sustaining
himself with a cool, indifferent, easy, unthought-of,
barbaric majesty, the noble negro to every roll of the sea
harmoniously rolled his fine form. On his broad back,
flaxen-haired Flask seemed a snow-flake. The bearer
looked nobler than the rider. Though truly vivacious,
tumultuous, ostentatious little Flask would now and then
stamp with impatience ; but not one added heave did he
thereby give to the negro's lordly chest. So have I seen
Passion and Vanity stamping the living magnanimous'
earth, but the earth did not alter her tides and her seasons
for that.
Meanwhile Stubb, the third mate, betrayed no such
far-gazing solicitudes. The whales might have made
one of their regular soundings, not a temporary dive from
mere fright ; and if that were the case, Stubb, as his
wont in such cases, it seems, was resolved to solace the
languishing interval with his pipe. He withdrew it from
his hat-band, where he always wore it aslant like a feather.
280 MOBY-DICK
He loaded it, and rammed home the loading with his
thumb-end ; but hardly had he ignited his match across
the rough sandpaper of his hand, when Tashtego, his
harpooneer, whose eyes had been setting to windward like
two fixed stars, suddenly dropped like light from his erect
attitude to his seat, crying out in a quick frenzy of
hurry, ' Down, down all, and give way ! there they are ! '
To a landsman, no whale, nor any sign of a herring,
would have been visible at that moment ; nothing but a
troubled bit of greenish-white water, and thin scattered
puffs of vapour hovering over it, and suffusingly blowing
off to leeward, like the confused scud from white rolling
billows. The air around suddenly vibrated and tingled,
as it were, like the air over intensely heated plates of
iron. Beneath this atmospheric waving and curling, and
partially beneath a thin layer of water, also, the whales
were swimming. Seen in advance of all the other indi-
cations, the puffs of vapour they spouted, seemed their
forerunning couriers and detached flying outriders.
All four bojits were now in keen pursuit of that one spot
of troubled water and air. But it bade far to outstrip
them ; it flew on and on, as a mass of interblending
bubbles borne down a rapid stream from the hills.
' Pull, pull, my good boys,' said Starbuck, in the lowest
possible but intensest concentrated whisper to his men ;
while the sharp fixed glance from his eyes darted straight
ahead of the bow, almost seemed as two visible needles
in two unerring binnacle compasses. He did not say much
to his crew, though, nor did his crew say anything to him.
Only the silence of the boat was at intervals startlingly
pierced by one of his peculiar whispers, now harsh with
command, now soft with entreaty.
How different the loud little King-Post. ' Sing out
and say something, my hearties. Roar and pull, my
thunderbolts ! Beach me, beach me on their black backs,
THE FIRST LOWERING 281
boys ; only do that for me, and 1 11 sign over to you my
Martha's Vineyard plantation, boys ; including wife and
children, boys. Lay me on lay me on ! Lord, Lord !
but I shall go stark, staring mad ! See ! see that white
water ! ' And so shouting, he pulled his hat from his
head, and stamped up and down on it ; then picking it
up, flirted it far off upon the sea ; and finally fell to
rearing and plunging in the boat's stern like a crazed
colt from the prairie.
' Look at that chap now,' philosophically drawled
Stubb, who, with his unlighted short pipe, mechanically
retained between his teeth, at a short distance, followed
after ' He 's got fits, that Flask has. Fits ? yes, give
him fits that 's the very word pitch fits into 'em.
Merrily, merrily, hearts -alive. Pudding for supper, you
know ; merry 's the word. Pull, babes pull, sucklings
pull, all. But what the devil are you hurrying about ?
Softly, softly, and steadily, my men. Only pull, and keep
pulling ; nothing more. Crack all your backbones, and
bite your knives hi two that 's all. Take it easy why
don't ye take it easy, I say, and burst all your livers and
lungs ! '
But what it was that inscrutable Ahab said to that
tiger-yellow crew of his these were words best omitted
here ; for you live under the blessed light of the evangelical
land. Only the infidel sharks in the audacious seas may
give ear to such words, when, with tornado brow, and
eyes of red murder, and foam-glued lips, Ahab leaped
after his prey.
Meanwhile, all the boats tore on. The repeated specific
allusions of Flask to ' that whale,' as he called the fictitious
monster which he declared to be incessantly tantalising
his boat's bow with his tail these allusions of his were at
times so vivid and lifelike, that they would cause some
one or two of his men to snatch a fearful look over the
282 MOBY-DICK
shoulder. But this was against all rule ; for the oarsmen
must put out their eyes, and ram a skewer through their
necks ; usage pronouncing that they must have no
organs but ears, and no limbs but arms, in these critical
moments.
It was a sight full of quick wonder and awe ! The vast
swells of the omnipotent sea ; the surging, hollow roar
they made, as they rolled along the eight gunwales, like
gigantic bowls in a boundless bowling-green ; the brief
suspended agony of the boat, as it would tip for an
instant on the knife-like edge of the sharper waves, that
almost seemed threatening to cut it in two ; the sudden
profound dip into the watery glens and hollows ; the
keen spurrings and goadings to gain the top of the opposite
hill ; the headlong, sled-like slide down its other side ;
all these, with the cries of the headsmen and harpooneers,
and the shuddering gasps of the oarsmen, with the won-
drous sight of the ivory Pequod bearing down upon her
boats with outstretched sails, like a wild hen after her
screaming brood ; all this was thrilling. Not the raw
recruit, marching from the bosom of his wife into the fever-
heat of his first battle ; not the dead man's ghost en-
countering the first unknown phantom in the other world ;
neither of these can feel stranger and stronger emotions
than that man does, who for the first time finds himself
pulling into the charmed, churned circle of the hunted
sperm whale.
The dancing white water made by the chase was now
becoming more and more visible, owing to the increasing
darkness of the dun cloud-shadows flung upon the sea.
The jets of vapour no longer blended, but tilted every-
where to right and left ; the whales seemed separating
their wakes. The boats were pulled more apart ; Star-
buck giving chase to three whales running dead to lee-
ward. Our sail was now set, and, with the still rising
THE FIRST LOWERING 283
wind, we rushed along ; the boat going with such madness
through the water, that the lee -oars could scarcely be
worked rapidly enough to escape being torn from the
rowlocks.
Soon we were running through a suffusing wide veil of
mist ; neither ship nor boat to be seen.
4 Give way, men,' whispered Starbuck, drawing still
further aft the sheet of his sail ; ' there is time to kill a
fish yet before the squall comes. There 's white water
again ! close to ! Spring ! *
Soon after, two cries in quick succession on each side
of us denoted that the other boats had got fast ; but
hardly were they overheard, when with a lightning-like
hurtling whisper Starbuck said : ' Stand up ! ' and Quee-
queg, harpoon in hand, sprang to his feet.
Though not one of the oarsmen was then facing the
life and death peril so close to them ahead, yet with their
eyes on the intense countenance of the mate in the stern
of the boat, they knew that the imminent instant had
come ; they heard, too, an enormous wallowing sound
as of fifty elephants stirring in their litter. Meanwhile
the boat was still booming through the mist, the waves
curling and hissing around us like the erected crests of
enraged serpents.
' That 's his hump. There, there, give it to him ! '
whispered Starbuck.
A short rushing sound leaped out of the boat ; it was
the darted iron of Queequeg. Then all in one welded
commotion came an invisible push from astern, while
forward the boat seemed striking on a ledge ; the sail
collapsed and exploded ; a gush of scalding vapour shot
up near by ; something rolled and tumbled like an earth-
quake beneath us. The whole crew were half suffocated
as they were tossed helter-skelter into the white curdling
cream of the squall. Squall, whale, and harpoon had all
284 MOBY-DICK
blended together ; and the whale, merely grazed by the
iron, escaped.
Though completely swamped, the boat was nearly
unharmed. Swimming round it we picked up the floating
oars, and lashing them across the gunwale, tumbled back
to our places. There we sat up to our knees in the sea,
the water covering every rib and plank, so that to our
downward-gazing eyes the suspended craft seemed a coral
boat grown up to us from the bottom of the ocean.
The wind increased to a howl ; the waves dashed their
bucklers together ; the whole squall roared, forked, and
crackled around us like a white fire upon the prairie, in
which, unconsumed, we were burning ; immortal in these
jaws of death ! In vain we hailed the other boats ; as
well roar to the live coals down the chimney of a flaming
furnace as hail those boats in that storm. Meanwhile
the driving scud, rack, and mist grew darker with the
shadows of night ; no sign of the ship could be seen.
The rising sea forbade all attempts to bale out the boat.
The oars were useless as propellers, performing now the
office of life-preservers. So, cutting the lashing of the
waterproof match keg, after many failures Starbuck
contrived to ignite the lamp in the lantern ; then stretch-
ing it on a waif -pole, handed it to Queequeg as the standard-
bearer of this forlorn hope. There, then, he sat, holding
up that imbecile candle in the heart of that almighty
forlornness. There, then, he sat, the sign and symbol
of a man without faith, hopelessly holding up hope in
the midst of despair.
Wet, drenched through, and shivering cold, despairing
of ship or boat, we lifted up our eyes as the dawn came on.
The mist still spread over the sea, the empty lantern lay
crushed in the bottom of the boat. Suddenly Queequeg
started to his feet, hollowing his hand to his ear. We all
heard a faint creaking, as of ropes and yards hitherto
THE FIRST LOWERING 285
muffled by the storm. The sound came nearer and
nearer ; the thick mists were dimly parted by a huge,
vague form. Affrighted, we all sprang into the sea as
the ship at last loomed into view, bearing right down upon
us within a distance of not much more than its length.
Floating on the waves we saw the abandoned boat, as
for one instant it tossed and gaped beneath the ship's
bows like a chip at the base of a cataract ! and then the
vast hull rolled over it, and it was seen no more till it
came up weltering astern. Again we swam for it, were
dashed against it by the seas, and were at last taken up
and safely landed on board. Ere the squall came close
to, the other boats had cut loose from their fish and
returned to the ship in good time. The ship had given us
up, but was still cruising, if haply it might light upon some
token of our perishing, an oar or a lance pole.
CHAPTER XL1X
THE HYENA
THERE are certain queer times and occasions in this
strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this
whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit
thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects
that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own. How-
ever, nothing dispirits, and nothing seems worth while
disputing. He bolts down all events, all creeds, and
beliefs, and persuasions, all hard things visible and in-
visible, never mind how knobby ; as an ostrich of potent
digestion gobbles down bullets and gun flints. And as
for small difficulties and worryings, prospects of sudden
disaster, peril of life and limb ; all these, and death itself,
seem to him only sly, good-natured hits, and jolly punches
in the side bestowed by the unseen and unaccountable
old joker. That odd sort of wayward mood I am speaking
of, comes over a man only in some time of extreme tribu-
lation ; it comes in the very midst of his earnestness, so
that what just before might have seemed to him a thing
most momentous, now seems but a part of the general
joke. There is nothing like the perils of whaling to breed
this free-and-easy sort of genial, desperado philosophy ;
and with it I now regarded this whole voyage of the
Pequod, and the great White Whale its object.
' Queequeg/ said I, when they had dragged me, the
}ast man, to the deck, and I was still shaking myself in
my jacket to fling off the water ; ' Queequeg, my fine
friend, does this sort of thing often happen ? ' Without
286
THE HYENA 287
much emotion, though soaked through just like me, he
gave me to understand that such things did often happen.
4 Mr. Stubb,' said I, turning to that worthy, who,
buttoned up in his oil-jacket, was now calmly smoking
his pipe in the rain ; ' Mr. Stubb, I think I have heard you
say that of all whalemen you ever met, our chief mate,
Mr. Starbuck, is by far the most careful and prudent. I
suppose then, that going plump on a flying whale with your
sail set in a foggy squall is the height of a whaleman's
discretion ? '
1 Certain. I 've lowered for whales from a leaking
ship in a gale off Cape Horn.'
4 Mr. Flask,' said I, turning to little King-Post, who was
standing close by ; ' you are experienced in these things,
and I am not. Will you tell me whether it is an unalter-
able law in this fishery, Mr. Flask, for an oarsman to break
his own back pulling himself back-foremost into death's
jaws ? '
' Can't you twist that smaller ? ' said Flask. ' Yes,
that 's the law. I should like to see a boat's crew backing
water up to a whale face foremost. Ha, ha ! the whale
would give them squint for squint, mind that ! J
Here then, from three impartial witnesses, I had a
deliberate statement of the entire case. Considering,
therefore, that squalls and capsizings in the water and
consequent bivouacks on the deep, were matters of
common -occurrence in this kind of life ; considering that
at the superlatively critical instant of going on to the
whale I must resign my life into the hands of him who
steered the boat oftentimes a fellow who at that very
moment is in his impetuousness upon the point of scuttling
the craft with his own frantic stampings ; considering
that the particular disaster to our own particular boat was
chiefly to be imputed to Starbuck's driving on to his whale
almost in the teeth of a squall, and considering that
288 MOBY-DICK
Starbuck, notwithstanding, was famous for his great
heedfulness in the fishery ; considering that I belonged to
this uncommonly prudent Starbuck 's boat ; and finally
considering in what a devil's chase I was implicated,
touching the White Whale : taking all things together, I
say, I thought I might as well go below and make a rough
draft of my will. ' Queequeg,' said I, ' come along, you
shall be my lawyer, executor, and legatee/
It may seem strange that of all men sailors should be
tinkering at their last wills and testaments, but there are
no people in the world more fond of that diversion. This
was the fourth time in my nautical life that I had done
the same thing. After the ceremony was concluded upon
the present occasion, I felt all the easier ; a stone was
rolled away from my heart. Besides, all the days I should
now live would be as good as the days that Lazarus lived
after his resurrection ; a supplementary clean gain of so
many months or weeks as the case might be. I survived
myself ; my death and burial were locked up in my chest.
I looked round me tranquilly and contentedly, like a quiet
ghost with a clean conscience sitting inside the bars of a
snug family vault.
Now then, thought I, unconsciously rolling up the
sleeves of my frock, here goes for a cool, collected dive
at death and destruction, and the devil fetch the hindmost.
CHAPTER L
ARAB'S BOAT AND CREW. FEDALLAH
* WHO would have thought it, Flask ! ' cried Stubb. ' If
I had but one leg you would not catch me in a boat, unless
maybe to stop the plug-hole with my timber toe. Oh !
he 's a wonderful old man ! '
' I don't think it so strange, after all, on that account,'
said Flask. ' If his leg were off at the hip, now, it would
be a different thing. That would disable him ; but he
has one knee, and good part of the other left, you know.'
' I don't know that, my little man ; I never yet saw
him kneel.'
*******
Among whale -wise people it has often been argued
whether, considering the paramount importance of his
life to the success of the voyage, it is right for a whaling-
captain to jeopardise that life in the active perils of the
chase. So Tamerlane's soldiers often argued with tears
in their eyes, whether that invaluable life of his ought to
be carried into the thickest of the fight.
But with Ahab the question assumed a modified aspect.
Considering that with two legs man is but a hobbling
wight in all times of danger ; considering that the pursuit
of whales is always under great and extraordinary diffi-
culties ; that every individual moment, indeed, then
comprises a peril ; under these circumstances is it wise
for any maimed man to enter a whale-boat in the hunt ?
As a general thing, the joint-owners of the Pequod must
have plainly thought not.
VOL. I. T
290 MOBY-DICK
Ahab well knew that although his friends at home
would think little of his entering a boat in certain com-
paratively harmless vicissitudes of the chase, for the sake
of being near the scene of action and giving his orders in
person, yet for Captain Ahab to have a boat actually
apportioned to him as a regular headsman in the hunt
above all, for Captain Ahab to be supplied with five extra
men, as that same boat's crew, he well knew that such
generous conceits never entered the heads of the owners
of the Pequod. Therefore he had not solicited a boat's
crew from them, nor had he in any way hinted his desires
on that head. Nevertheless he had taken private measure
of his own touching all that matter. Until Cabaco's
published discovery, the sailors had little foreseen it,
though to be sure when, after being a little while out of
port, all hands had concluded the customary business of
fitting the whale-boats for service ; when some time after
this Ahab was now and then found bestirring himself in
the matter of making thole-pins with his own hands for
what was thought to be one of the spare boats, and even
solicitously cutting the small wooden skewers, which
when the line is running out are pinned over the groove
in the bow ; when all this was observed in him, and par-
ticularly his solicitude hi having an extra coat of sheath-
ing in the bottom of the boat, as if to make it better
withstand the pointed pressure of his ivory limb ; and
also the anxiety he evinced in exactly shaping the thigh -
board, or clumsy cleat, as it is sometimes called, the hori-
zontal piece in the boat's bow for bracing the knee against
in darting or stabbing at the whale ; when it was observed
how often he stood up in that boat with his solitary knee
fixed in the semicircular depression in the cleat, and
with the carpenter's chisel gouged out a little here and
straightened it a little there ; all these things, I say, had
awakened much interest and curiosity at the time. But
FEDALLAH 291
almost everybody supposed that this particular prepara-
tive heedfulness in Ahab must only be with a view to the
ultimate chase of Moby-Dick ; for he had already revealed
his intention to hunt that mortal monster in person. But
such a supposition did by no means involve the remotest
suspicion as to any boat's crew being assigned to that
boat.
Now, with the subordinate phantoms, what wonder
remained soon waned away ; for in a whaler wonders soon
wane. Besides, now and then such unaccountable odds
and ends of strange nations come up from the unknown
nooks and ash-holes of the earth to man these floating
outlaws of whalers ; and the ships themselves often pick
up such queer castaway creatures found tossing about
the open sea on planks, bits of wreck, oars, whale-boats,
canoes, blown-off Japanese junks, and what not ; that
Beelzebub himself might climb up the side and step down
into the cabin to chat with the captain, and it would not
create any unsubduable excitement in the forecastle.
But be all this as it may, certain it is that while the
subordinate phantoms soon found their place among the
crew, though still as it were somehow distinct from them,
yet that hair-turbaned Fedallah remained a muffled
mystery to the last. Whence he came in a mannerly
world like this, by what sort of unaccountable tie he soon
evinced himself to be linked with Ahab's peculiar fortunes;
nay, so far as to have some sort of a half -hinted influence ;
Heaven knows, but it might have been even authority
over him ; all this none knew. But one cannot sustain an
indifferent air concerning Fedallah. He was such a
creature as civilised, domestic people in the temperate
zone only see in their dreams, and that but dimly ; but
the like of whom now and then glide among the unchang-
ing Asiatic communities, especially the oriental isles to
the east of the continent those insulated, immemorial,
292 MOBY-DICK
unalterable countries, which even in these modern days
still preserve much of the ghostly aboriginalness of earth's
primal generations, when the memory of the first man was
a distinct recollection, and all men his descendants, un-
knowing whence he came, eyed each other as real phan-
toms, and asked of the sun and the moon why they were
created and to what end ; when though, according to
Genesis, the angels indeed consorted with the daughters
of men, the devils also, add the uncanonical Rabbins,
indulged in mundane amours.
CHAPTER LI
THE SPIRIT- SPOUT
DAYS, weeks passed, and under easy sail, the ivory Pequod
had slowly swept across four several cruising-grounds ;
that off the Azores ; off the Cape de Verdes ; on the
Plate (so called), being off the mouth of the Bio de la
Plata ; and the Carrol ground, an unstaked, watery
locality, southerly from St. Helena.
It was while gliding through these latter waters that
one serene and moonlight night, when all the waves rolled
by like scrolls of silver ; and, by their soft, suffusing
seethings, made what seemed a silvery silence, not a
solitude : on such a silent night a silvery jet was seen far ,;
in advance of the white bubbles at the bow. Lit up by I
the moon, it looked celestial ; seemed some plumed and
glittering god uprising from the sea. Fedallah first
descried this jet. For of these moonlight nights, it was
his wont to mount to the mainmast-head, and stand a
look-out there, with the same precision as if it had been
day. And yet, though herds of whales were seen by
night, not one whalemen in a hundred would venture a
lowering for them. You may think with what emotions,
then, the seamen beheld this old Oriental perched aloft
at such unusual hours ; his turban and the moon, com-
panions in one sky. But when, after spending his uniform
interval there for several successive nights without utter-
ing a single sound ; when, after all this silence, his un-
earthly voice was heard announcing that silvery, moon-lit
jet, every reclining mariner started to his feet as if some
293
294 MOBY-DICK
winged spirit had lighted in the rigging, and hailed the
mortal crew. ' There she blows ! ' Had the trump of
judgment blown, they could not have quivered more ; yet
still they felt no terror ; rather pleasure. For though it
was a most unwonted hour, yet so impressive was the cry,
and so deliriously exciting, that almost every soul on
board instinctively desired a lowering.
Walking the deck with quick, side -lunging strides,
Ahab commanded the t '-gallant-sails and royals to be set,
and every stun' -sail spread. The best man in the ship
must take the helm. Then, with every mast-head manned,
the piled-up craft rolled down before the wind. The
strange, upheaving, lifting tendency of the taffrail breeze
filling the hollows of so many sails, made the buoyant,
hovering deck to feel like air beneath the feet ; while
still she rushed along, as if two antagonistic influences
were struggling in her one to mount direct to heaven, 1
the other to drive yawingly to some horizontal goal. H
And had you watched Ahab's face that night, you would
have thought that in him also two different things were
warring. While his one live leg made lively echoes along
the deck, every stroke of his dead limb sounded like a
coffin-tap. On life and death this old man walked. But
though the ship so swiftly sped, and though from every
eye, like arrows, the eager glances shot, yet the silvery
jet was no more seen that night. Every sailor swore
he saw it once, but not a second time.
This midnight-spout had almost grown a forgotten
thing, when, some days after, lo ! at the same silent hour,
it was again announced : again it was descried by all ;
but upon making sail to overtake it, once more it dis-
appeared as if it had never been. And so it served us
night after night, till no one heeded it but to wonder at
it. Mysteriously jetted into the clear moonlight, or
starlight, as the case might be ; disappearing again for
THE SPIRIT-SPOUT 295
one whole day, or two days, or three ; and somehow
seeming at every distinct repetition to be advancing still
further and further in our van, this solitary jet seemed
forever alluring us on.
Nor with the immemorial superstition of their race,
and in accordance with the preternaturalness, as it seemed,
which in many things invested the Pequod, were there
wanting some of the seamen who swore that whenever
and wherever descried ; at however remote times, or in
however far apart latitudes and longitudes, that unnear-
able spout was cast by one self-same whale ; and that
whale, Moby-Dick. For a time, there reigned, too, a
sense of peculiar dread at this flitting apparition, as if it
were treacherously beckoning us on and on, in order that
the monster might turn round upon us, and rend us at
last in the remotest and most savage seas.
These temporary apprehensions, so vague but so awful,
derived a wondrous potency from the contrasting serenity
of the weather, in which, beneath all its blue blandness,
some thought there lurked a devilish charm, as for days
and days we voyaged along, through seas so wearily,
lonesomely mild, that all space, in repugnance to our
vengeful errand, seemed vacating itself of life before our
urn-like prow.
But, at last, when turning to the eastward, the Cape
winds began howling around us, and we rose and fell upon
the long, troubled seas that are there ; when the ivory-
tusked Pequod sharply bowed to the blast, and gored the
dark waves in her madness, till, like showers of silver
chips, the foam-flakes flew over her bulwarks ; then all
this desolate vacuity of life went away, but gave place
to sights more dismal than before.
Close to our bows, strange forms in the water darted
hither and thither before us ; while thick in our rear flew
the inscrutable sea-ravens. And every morning, perched
296 MOBY-DICK
on our stays, rows of these birds were seen ; and spite
of our hootings, for a long time obstinately clung to the
hemp, as though they deemed our ship some drifting,
uninhabited craft ; a thing appointed to desolation, and
therefore fit roosting-place for their homeless selves. And
heaved and heaved, still unrestingly heaved the black
sea, as if its vast tides were a conscience ; and the great
mundane soul were in anguish and remorse for the long
sin and suffering it had bred.
Cape of Good Hope, do they call ye ? Rather Cape
Tormentoto, as called of yore ; for long allured by the
perfidious silences that before had attended us, we found
ourselves launched into this tormented sea, where guilty
beings transformed into those fowls and these fish,
seemed condemned to swim on everlastingly without any
haven in store, or beat that black air without any horizon.
But calm, snow-white, and unvarying ; still directing
its fountain of feathers to the sky ; still beckoning us on
from before, the solitary jet would at times be descried.
During all this blackness of the elements, Ahab, though
assuming for the time the almost continual command
of the drenched and dangerous deck, manifested the
gloomiest reserve ; and more seldom than ever addressed
his mates. In tempestuous times like these, after every-
thing above and aloft has been secured, nothing more
can be done but passively to await the issue of the gale.
Then captain and crew become practical fatalists. So,
with his ivory leg inserted into its accustomed hole, and
with one hand firmly grasping a shroud, Ahab for hours
and hours would stand gazing dead to windward, while an
occasional squall of sleet or snow would all but congeal
his very eyelashes together. Meantime, the crew driven
from the forward part of the ship by the perilous seas
that burstingly broke over its bows, stood in a line along
the bulwarks in the waist ; and the better to guard against
THE SPIRIT-SPOUT 297
the leaping waves, each man had slipped himself into a
sort of bow-line secured to the rail, in which he swung as
in a loosened belt. Few or no words were spoken ; and
the silent ship, as if manned by painted sailors in wax,
day after day tore on through all the swift madness and
gladness of the demoniac waves. By night the same
muteness of humanity before the shrieks of the ocean
prevailed ; still in silence the men swung in the bow-lines ;
still wordless Ahab stood up to the blast. Even when
wearied nature seemed demanding repose, he would not
seek that repose in his hammock. Never could Starbuck
forget the old man's aspect, when one night going down
into the cabin to mark how the barometer stood, he saw
him with closed eyes sitting straight in his floor-screwed
chair ; the rain and half-melted sleet of the storm from
which he had some time before emerged, still slowly
dripping from the unremoved hat and coat. On the table
beside him lay unrolled one of those charts of tides and
currents which have previously been spoken of. His
lantern swung from his tightly clenched hand. Though
the body was erect, the head was thrown back so that the
closed eyes were pointed toward the needle of the tell-
tale that swung from a beam in the ceiling. 1
Terrible old man ! thought Starbuck with a shudder,
sleeping in this gale, still thou steadfastly eyest thy
purpose.
1 The cabin-compass is called the tell-tale, because, without going to
the compass at the helm, the captain, while below, can inform himself of
the course of the ship.
CHAPTER LII
THE ALBATROSS
SOUTH-EASTWARD from the Cape, off the distant Crozetts,
a good cruising -ground for right whalemen, a sail loomed
ahead, the Goney (Albatross) by name. As she slowly
drew nigh, from my lofty perch at the foremast -head, I
had a good view of that sight so remarkable to a tyro in
the far ocean fisheries a whaler at sea, and long absent
from home.
As if the waves had been fullers, this craft was bleached
like the skeleton of a stranded walrus. All down her
sides, this spectral appearance was traced with long
channels of reddened rust, while all her spars and her
rigging were like the thick branches of trees furred over
with hoar-frost. Only her lower sails were set. A wild
sight it was to see her long-bearded look-outs at those
three mast-heads. They seemed clad in the skins of beasts,
so torn and bepatched the raiment that had survived
nearly four years of cruising. Standing in iron hoops
nailed to the mast, they swayed and swung over a fathom-
less sea ; and though, when the ship slowly glided close
under our stern, we six men in the air came so nigh to each
other that we might almost have leaped from the mast-
heads of one ship to those of the other ; yet, those for-
lorn-looking fishermen, mildly eyeing us as they passed,
said not one word to our own look-outs, while the quarter-
deck hail was being heard from below.
' Ship ahoy ! Have ye seen the White Whale ? '
But as the strange captain, leaning over the pallid
THE ALBATROSS 299
bulwarks, was in the act of putting his trumpet to his
mouth, it somehow fell from his hand into the sea ; and
the wind now rising amain, he in vain strove to make
himself heard without it. Meantime, his ship was still
increasing the distance between. While in various silent
ways the seamen of the Pequod were evincing their observ-
ance of this ominous incident at the first mere mention
of the White Whale's name to another ship, Ahab for a
moment paused ; it almost seemed as though he would
have lowered a boat to board the stranger, had not the
threatening wind forbade. But taking advantage of his
windward position, he again seized his trumpet, and
knowing by her aspect that the stranger vessel was a
Nantucketer and shortly bound home, he loudly hailed
' Ahoy there ! This is the Pequod, bound round the
world ! Tell them to address all future letters to the
Pacific Ocean ! and this time three years, if I am not at
home, tell them to address them to '
At that moment the two wakes were fairly crossed, and
instantly, then, in accordance with their singular ways,
shoals of small harmless fish, that for some days before
had been placidly swimming by our side, darted away
with what seemed shuddering fins, and ranged themselves
fore and aft with the stranger's flanks. Though in the
course of his continual voyagings Ahab must often before
have noticed a similar sight, yet, to any monomaniac
man, the veriest trifles capriciously carry meanings.
' Swim away from me, do ye ? ' murmured Ahab,
gazing over into the water. There seemed but little in
the words, but the tone conveyed more of deep helpless
sadness than the insane old man had ever before evinced.
But turning to the steersman, who thus far had been
holding the ship in the wind to diminish her headway,
he cried out in his old lion voice, ' Up helm ! Keep her
off round the world ! '
300
MOBY-DICK
Round the world ! There is much in that sound to
inspire proud feelings ; but whereto does all that circum-
navigation conduct ? Only through numberless perils
to the very point whence we started, where those that we
left behind secure, were all the time before us.
Were this world an endless plain, and by sailing east-
ward we could forever reach new distances, and discover
sights more sweet and strange than any Cyclades or Islands
of King Solomon, then there were promise in the voyage.
But in pursuit of those far mysteries we dream of, or in
tormented chase of that demon phantom that, some time
or other, swims before all human hearts ; while chasing
such over this round globe, they either lead us on in
barren mazes or midway leave us whelmed.
CHAPTER LIII
THE GAM
THE ostensible reason why Ahab did not go on board of the
whaler we had spoken was this : the wind and sea be-
tokened storms. But even had this not been the case,
he would not after all, perhaps, have boarded her judging
by his subsequent conduct on similar occasions if so it
had been that, by the process of hailing, he had obtained
a negative answer to the question he put. For, as it
eventually turned out, he cared not to consort, even for
five minutes, with any stranger captain, except he could
contribute some of that information he so absorbingly
sought. But all this might remain inadequately esti-
mated, were not something said here of the peculiar usages
of whaling-vessels wlfen meeting each other in foreign
seas, and especially on a common cruising-ground.
If two strangers crossing the Pine Barrens in New York
State, or the equally desolate Salisbury Plain in England ;
if casually encountering each other in such inhospitable
wilds, these twain, for the life of them, cannot well avoid
a mutual salutation ; and stopping for a moment to
interchange the news ; and, perhaps, sitting down for a
while and resting in concert : then, how much more natural
that upon the illimitable Pine Barrens and Salisbury Plains
of the sea, two whaling-vessels descrying each other at the
ends of the earth off lone Fanning 's Island, or the far
away King's Mills ; how much more natural, I say,
that under such circumstances these ships should not only
interchange hails, but come into still closer, more friendly
and sociable contact. And especially would this seem to
901
302 MOBY-DICK
be a matter of course, in the case of vessels owned in one
seaport, and whose captains, officers, and not a few of the
men are personally known to each other ; and consequently,
have all sorts of dear domestic things to talk about.
For the long absent ship, the outward-bounder, per-
haps, has letters on board ; at any rate, she will be sure
to let her have some papers of a date a year or two later
than the last one on her blurred and thumb-worn files.
And in return for that courtesy, the outward-bound ship
would receive the latest whaling intelligence from the
cruising-ground to which she may be destined, a thing of
the utmost importance to her. And in degree, all this
will hold true concerning whaling-vessels crossing each
other's track on the cruising-ground itself, even though
they are equally long absent from home. For one of them
may have received a transfer of letters from some third,
and now far remote vessel ; and some of those letters
may be for the people of the ship she now meets. Besides,
they would exchange the whaling news, and have an
agreeable chat. For not only would they meet with all
the sympathies of sailors, but likewise with all the peculiar
congenialities arising from a common pursuit and mutually
shared privations and perils.
Nor would difference of country make any very essential
difference ; that is, so long as both parties speak one lan-
guage, as is the case with Americans and English.
Though, to be sure, from the small number of English
whalers, such meetings do not very often occur, and when
they do occur there is too apt to be a sort of shyness
between them ; for your Englishman is rather reserved,
and your Yankee, he does not fancy that sort of thing
in anybody but himself. Besides, the English whalers
sometimes affect a kind of metropolitan superiority over
the American whalers ; regarding the long, lean Nan-
tucketer, with his nondescript provincialisms, as a sort
of sea-peasant. But where this superiority in the English
THE GAM 303
whalemen does really consist, it would be hard to say,
seeing that the Yankees in one day, collectively, kill more
whales than all the English, collectively, in ten years.
But this is a harmless little foible in the English whale-
hunters, which the Nantucketer does not take much to
heart ; probably, because he knows that he has a few
foibles himself.
So, then, we see that of all ships separately sailing the
sea, the whalers have most reason to be sociable and
they are so. Whereas, some merchant ships crossing
each other's wake in the mid- Atlantic, will oftentimes
pass on without so much as a single word of recognition,
mutually cutting each other on the high seas, like a brace
of dandies in Broadway ; and all the time indulging,
perhaps, in finical criticism upon each other's rig. As
for men-of-war, when they chance to meet at sea, they
first go through such a string of silly bowings and scrapings,
such a ducking of ensigns, that there does not seem to be
much right-down hearty goodwill and brotherly love
about it at all. As touching slave-ships meeting, why, they
are in such a prodigious hurry, they run away from each
other as soon as possible. And as for pirates, when they
chance to cross each other's cross-bones, the first hail is,
' How many skulls ? ' the same way that whalers hail
' How many barrels ? ' And that question once answered,
pirates straightway steer apart, for they are infernal
villains on both sides, and don't like to see overmuch of
each other's villainous likenesses.
But look at the godly, honest, unostentatious, hos-
pitable, sociable, free-and-easy whaler ! What does the
whaler do when she meets another whaler in any sort of
decent weather ? She has a ' Gam,' a thing so utterly
unknown to all other ships that they never heard of the
name even ; and if by chance they should hear of it, they
only grin at it, and repeat gamesome stuff about 'spouters'
and c blubber-boilers,' and such like pretty exclamations.
304 MOBY-DICK
Why it is that all merchant seamen, and also all pirates
and man-of-war's men, and slave-ship sailors, cherish
such a scornful feeling toward whale-ships ; this is a
question it would be hard to answer. Because, in the
case of pirates, say, I should like to know whether that
profession of theirs has any peculiar glory about it. It
sometimes ends in uncommon elevation, indeed ; but only
at the gallows. And besides, when a man is elevated in
that odd fashion, he has no proper foundation for his
superior altitude. Hence, I conclude, that in boasting
himself to be high lifted above a whaleman, in that
assertion the pirate has no solid basis to stand on.
But what is a Gam ? You might wear out your index
finger running up and down the columns of dictionaries,
and never find the word. Dr. Johnson never attained
to that erudition ; Noah Webster's ark does not hold it.
Nevertheless, this same expressive word has now for
many years been in constant use among some fifteen
thousand true-born Yankees. Certainly, it needs a
definition, and should be incorporated into the Lexicon.
With that view, let me learnedly define it.
GAM. NOUN A social meeting of two (or more)
whale-ships, generally on a cruising-ground ; when, after
exchanging hails, they exchange visits by boats' crews : the
two captains remaining, for the time, on board of one ship t
and the two chief mates on the other.
There is another little item about Gamming which must
not be forgotten here. All professions have their own
little peculiarities of detail ; so has the whale-fishery. In
a pirate, man-of-war, or slave-ship, when the captain
is rowed anywhere hi his boat, he always sits in the stern-
sheets on a comfortable, sometimes cushioned seat there,
and often steers himself with a pretty little milliner's
tiller decorated with gay cords and ribbons. But the
whale-boat has no seat astern, no sofa of that sort what-
THE GAM 305
ever, and no tiller at all. High times indeed, if whaling-
captains were wheeled about the water on castors like
gouty old aldermen in patent chairs. And as for a tiller,
the whale-boat never admits of any such effeminacy ; and
therefore as in gamming a complete boat's crew must
leave the ship, and hence as the boat steerer or harpooneer
is of the number, that subordinate is the steersman upon
the occasion, and the captain, having no place to sit in,
is pulled off to his visit all standing like a pine-tree. And
often you will notice that being conscious of the eyes of
the whole visible world resting on him from the sides of
the two ships, this standing captain is all alive to the
importance of sustaining his dignity by maintaining his
legs. Nor is this any very easy matter ; for in his rear
is the immense projecting steering-oar hitting him now
and then in the small of his back, the after-oar reciprocat-
ing by rapping his knees in front. He is thus completely
wedged before and behind, and can only expand himself
sideways by settling down on his stretched legs ; but a
sudden, violent pitch of the boat will often go far to topple
him, because length of foundation is nothing without
corresponding breadth. Merely make a spread angle of
two poles, and you cannot stand them up. Then, again,
it would never do in plain sight of the world's riveted
eyes, it would never do, I say, for this straddling captain
to be seen steadying himself the slightest particle by
catching hold of anything with his hands ; indeed, as
token of his entire, buoyant self-command, he generally
carries his hands in his trowsers' pockets ; but perhaps
being generally very large, heavy hands, he carries them
there for ballast. Nevertheless there have occurred
instances, well authenticated ones too, where the captain
has been known for an uncommonly critical moment or
two, in a sudden squall, say to seize hold of the nearest
oarsman's hair, and hold on there like grim death.
VOL. i. u
CHAPTER L1V
THE TOWN-HO'S STORY
(As told at the Golden Inn.)
THE Cape of Good Hope, and all the watery region round
about there, is much like some noted four corners of a
great highway, where you meet more travellers than in
any other part.
It was not very long after speaking the Goney that
another homeward-bound whaleman, the Town-Ho? was
encountered. She was manned almost wholly by Poly-
nesians. In the short gam that ensued she gave us strong
news of Moby-Dick. To some the general interest in the
White Whale was now wildly heightened by a circumstance
of the Town-Ho' s story, which seemed obscurely to in-
volve with the whale a certain wondrous, inverted visi-
tation of one of those so-called judgments of God which
at times are said to overtake some men. This latter
circumstance, with its own particular accompaniments,
forming what may be called the secret part of the tragedy
about to be narrated, never reached the ears of Captain
Ahab or his mates. For that secret part of the story was
unknown to the captain of the Town-Ho himself. It was
the private property of three confederate white seamen
of that ship, one of whom, it seems, communicated it to
Tashtego with Romish injunctions of secrecy, but the
following night Tashtego rambled in his sleep,
1 The ancient whale-cry upon first sighting a whale from the mast-1
still used by \vhalemen in hunting the famous Gallipagos terrapin.
306
THE TOWN-HO'S STORY 307
revealed so much of it in that way, that when he was
wakened he could not well withhold the rest. Neverthe-
less, so potent an influence did this thing have on those
seamen in the Pequod who came to the full knowledge of
it, and by such a strange delicacy, to call it so, were they
governed in this matter, that they kept the secret among
themselves so that it never transpired abaft the Peqiwd's
mainmast. Interweaving in its proper place this darker
thread with the story as publicly narrated on the ship,
the whole of this strange affair I now proceed to put on
lasting record.
For my humour's sake, I shall preserve the style in
which I once narrated it at Lima, to a lounging circle of
my Spanish friends, one saint's eve, smoking upon the
thick-gilt tiled piazza of the Golden Inn. Of those fine
cavaliers, the young Dons, Pedro and Sebastian, were on
the closer terms with me ; and hence the interluding
questions they occasionally put, and which are duly
answered at the time.
4 Some two years prior to my first learning the events
which I am about rehearsing to you, gentlemen, the Town-
Ho, sperm whaler of Nantucket, was cruising in your
Pacific here, not very many days' sail westward from the
eaves of this good Golden Inn. She was somewhere
to the northward of the Line. One morning upon hand-
ling the pumps, according to daily usage, it was observed
that she made more water in her hold than common.
They supposed a sword-fish had stabbed her, gentlemen.
But the captain, having some unusual reason for believing
that rare good luck awaited him in those latitudes, and
therefore being very averse to quit them ; and the leak
not being then considered at all dangerous, though,
indeed, they could not find it after searching the hold as
low down as was possible in rather heavy weather ; the
ship still continued her cruisings, the mariners working
308 MOBY-DICK
at the pumps at wide and easy intervals ; but no good luck
came ; more days went by, and not only was the leak yet
undiscovered, but it sensibly increased. So much so,
that now taking some alarm, the captain, making all sail,
stood away for the nearest harbour among the islands,
there to have his hull hove out and repaired.
4 Though no small passage was before her, yet, if the
commonest chance favoured, he did not at all fear that
his ship would founder by the way, because his pumps
were of the best, and being periodically relieved at them,
those six-and-thirty men of his could easily keep the ship
free ; never mind if the leak should double on her. In
truth, well-nigh the whole of this passage being attended
by very prosperous breezes, the Town-Ho had all but
certainly arrived in perfect safety at her port without
the occurrence of the least fatality, had it not been for the
brutal overbearing of Radney, the mate, a Vineyarder, and
the bitterly provoked vengeance of Steelkilt, a Lakeman
and desperado from Buffalo.
' " Lakeman ! Buffalo ! Pray, what is a Lakeman,
and where is Buffalo ? " said Don Sebastian, rising in his
swinging mat of grass.
' On the eastern shore of our Lake Erie, Don ; but
I crave your courtesy maybe, you shall soon hear
further of all that. Now, gentlemen, in square-sail brigs
and three-masted ships, well-nigh as large and stout as
any that ever sailed out of your old Callao to far Manilla ;
this Lakeman, in the land-locked heart of our America,
had yet been nurtured by all those agrarian freebooting
impressions popularly connected with the open ocean.
For in their interflowing aggregate, those grand fresh-
water seas of ours, Erie, and Ontario, and Huron, and
Superior, and Michigan, possess an ocean -like expansive-
ness, with many of the ocean's noblest traits ; with many
of its rimmed varieties of races and of climes. They
THE TOWN-HO'S STORY 309
contain round archipelagoes of romantic isles, even as the
Polynesian waters do ; in large part, are shored by two
great contrasting nations, as the Atlantic is ; they furnish
long maritime approaches to our numerous territorial
colonies from the East, dotted all round their banks ; ;
here and there are frowned upon by batteries, and by
the goat-like craggy guns of lofty Mackinaw ; they have
heard the fleet thunderings of naval victories ; at intervals
they yield their beaches to wild barbarians, whose red-
painted faces flash from out their peltry wigwams ; for
leagues and leagues are flanked by ancient and unentered
forests, where the gaunt pines stand like serried lines of
kings in Gothic genealogies ; those same woods harbour-
ing wild Afric beasts of prey, and silken creatures whose
exported furs give robes to Tartar emperors ; they mirror
the paved capitals of Buffalo and Cleveland, as well as
Winnebago villages ; they float alike the full-rigged
merchant ship, the armed cruiser of the State, the steamer,
and the beech canoe ; they are swept by Borean and dis-
masting blasts as direful as any that lash the salted wave ;
they know what shipwrecks are, for out of sight of land,
however inland, they have drowned full many a midnight
ship with all its shrieking crew. Thus, gentlemen, though
an inlander, Steelkilt was wild-ocean born, and wild-
ocean nurtured ; as much of an audacious mariner as
any. And for Radney, though in his infancy he may have
laid him down on the lone Nantucket beach, to nurse at
his maternal sea ; though in after life he had long followed
our austere Atlantic and your contemplative Pacific ; yet
was he quite as vengeful and full of social quarrel as the
backwoods seaman, fresh from the latitudes of buck-horn
handled bowie-knives. Yet was this Nantucketer a man
with some good-hearted traits ; and this Lakeman, a
mariner, who though a sort of devil indeed, might yet by
inflexible firmness, only tempered by that common
310 MOBY-DICK
decency of human recognition which is the meanest
slave's right ; thus treated, this Steelkilt had long been
retained harmless and docile. At all events, he had
proved so thus far ; but Radney was doomed and made
mad, and Steelkilt but, gentlemen, you shall hear.
' It was not more than a day or two at the furthest
after pointing her prow for her island haven, that the
Town-Ho's leak seemed again increasing, but only so as
to require an hour or more at the pumps every day. You
must know that in a settled and civilised ocean like our
Atlantic, for example, some skippers think little of pump-
ing their whole way across it ; though of a still, sleepy
night, should the officer of the deck happen to forget his
duty in that respect, the probability would be that he
and his shipmates would never again remember it, on
account of all hands gently subsiding to the bottom. Nor
in the solitary and savage seas far from you to the west-
ward, gentlemen, is it altogether unusual for ships to
keep clanging at their pump-handles in full chorus even
for a voyage of considerable length ; that is, if it lie along
a tolerably accessible coast, or if any other reasonable
retreat is afforded them. It is only when a leaky vessel
is in some very out-of-the-way part of those waters, some
really landless latitude, that her captain begins to feel
a little anxious.
' Much this way had it been with the Town-Ho \ so
when her leak was found gaining once more, there was
in truth some small concern manifested by several of her
company ; especially by Radney the mate. He com-
manded the upper sails to be well hoisted, sheeted home
anew, and every way expanded to the breeze. Now this
Radney, I suppose, was as little of a coward, and as little
inclined to any sort of nervous apprehensiveness touching
his own person, as any fearless, unthinking creature on
land or on sea that you can conveniently imagine, gentle-
THE TOWN-HO'S STORY 311
men. Therefore when he betrayed this solicitude about
the safety of the ship, some of the seamen declared that
it was only on account of his being a part owner in her.
So when they were working that evening at the pumps,
there was on this head no small gamesomeness slyly going
on among them, as they stood with their feet continually
overflowed by the rippling clear water clear as any
mountain spring, gentlemen that bubbling from the
pumps ran across the deck, and poured itself out in steady
spouts at the lee scupper-holes.
4 Now, as you well know, it is not seldom the case hi
this conventional world of ours watery or otherwise ;
that when a person placed in command over his fellow-
men finds one of them to be very significantly his superior
in general pride of manhood, straightway against that
man he conceives an unconquerable dislike and bitterness ;
and if he have a chance he will pull down and pulverise that
subaltern's tower, and make a little heap of dust of it.
Be this conceit of mine as it may, gentlemen, at all events
Steelkilt was a tall and noble animal with a head like a
Roman, and a flowing golden beard like the tasselled
housings of your last viceroy's snorting charger ; and a
brain, and a heart, and a soul in him, gentlemen, which
had made Steelkilt Charlemagne, had he been born son
to Charlemagne's father. But Radney, the mate, was
ugly as a mule ; yet as hardy, as stubborn, as malicious.
He did not love Steelkilt, and Steelkilt knew it.
' Espying the mate drawing near as he was toiling at
the pump with the rest, the Lakeman affected not to
notice him, but unawed, went on with his gay banterings.
' " Ay, ay, my merry lads, it 's a lively leak this ;
hold a cannikin, one of ye, and let 's have a taste. By the
Lord, it 's worth bottling ! I tell ye what, men, old Rad's
investment must go for it ! he had best cut away his part
of the hull and tow it home. The fact is, boys, that sword-
312 MOBY-DICK
fish only began the job ; he 's come back again with a
gang of ship-carpenters, saw-fish, and file-fish, and what
not ; and the whole posse of 'em are now hard at work
cutting and slashing at the bottom ; making improve-
ments, I suppose. If old Rad were here now, I 'd tell
him to jump overboard and scatter 'em. They 're play-
ing the devil with his estate, I can tell him. But he 's a
simple old soul, Rad, and a beauty too. Boys, they say
the rest of his property is invested in looking-glasses. I
wonder if he 'd give a poor devil like me the model of his
nose."
' " Damn your eyes ! what 's that pump stopping f or ? "
roared Radney, pretending not to have heard the sailors'
talk. " Thunder away at it ! "
" Ay, ay, sir," said Steelkilt, merry as a cricket.
" Lively, boys, lively, now ! " And with that the pump
clanged like fifty fire-engines ; the men tossed their hats
off to it, and ere long that peculiar gasping of the lungs
was heard which denotes the fullest tension of life's
utmost energies.
' Quitting the pump at last, with the rest of his band,
the Lakeman went forward all panting, and sat himself
down on the windlass ; his face fiery red, his eyes blood-
shot, and wiping the profuse sweat from his brow. Now
what cozening fiend it was, gentlemen, that possessed
Radney to meddle with such a man in that corporeally
exasperated state, I know not ; but so it happened. In-
tolerably striding along the deck, the mate commanded
him to get a broom and sweep down the planks, and also
a shovel, and remove some offensive matters consequent
upon allowing a pig to run at large.
' Now, gentlemen, sweeping a ship's deck at sea is a
piece of household work which in all times but raging
gales is regularly attended to every evening ; it has been
known to be done in the case of ships actually foundering
THE TOWN-HO'S STORY 313
at the time. Such, gentlemen, is the inflexibility of sea-
usages and the instinctive love of neatness in seamen ;
some of whom would not willingly drown without first
washing their faces. But in all vessels this broom business
is the prescriptive province of the boys, if boys there be
aboard. Besides, it was the stronger men in the Town-Ho
that had been divided into gangs, taking turns at the
pumps ; and being the most athletic seaman of them all,
Steelkilt had been regularly assigned captain of one of
the gangs ; consequently he should have been freed from
any trivial business not connected with truly nautical
duties, such being the case with his comrades. I mention
all these particulars so that you may understand exactly
how this affair stood between the two men.
' But there was more than this : the order about the
shovel was almost as plainly meant to sting and insult
Steelkilt, as though Radney had spat in his face. Any
man who has gone sailor in a whale-ship will understand
this ; and all this and doubtless much more, the Lakeman
fully comprehended when the mate uttered his command.
But as he sat still for a moment, and as he steadfastly
looked into the mate's malignant eye and perceived the
stacks of powder-casks heaped up in him and the slow-
match silently burning along toward them ; as he in-
stinctively saw all this, that strange forbearance and un-
willingness to stir up the deeper passionateness in any
already ireful being a repugnance most felt, when felt
at all, by really valiant men even when aggrieved this
nameless phantom feeling, gentlemen, stole over Steelkilt.
' Therefore, in his ordinary tone, only a little broken
by the bodily exhaustion he was temporarily in, he an-
swered him saying that sweeping the deck was not his
business, and he would not do it. And then, without at
all alluding to the shovel, he pointed to three lads as the
customary sweepers ; who, not being billeted at the
314 MOBY-DICK
pumps, had done little or nothing all day. To this,
Radney replied with an oath, in a most domineering and
outrageous manner unconditionally reiterating his com-
mand ; meanwhile advancing upon the still seated Lake-
man, with an uplifted cooper's club hammer which he had
snatched from a cask near by.
' Heated and irritated as he was by his spasmodic toil
at the pumps, for all his first nameless feeling of forbear-
ance the sweating Steelkilt could but ill brook this bearing
in the mate ; but somehow still smothering the conflagra-
tion within him, without speaking he remained doggedly
rooted to his seat, till at last the incensed Radney shook
the hammer within a few inches of his face, furiously
commanding him to do his bidding.
4 Steelkilt rose, and slowly retreating round the wind-
lass, steadily followed by the mate with his menacing
hammer, deliberately repeated his intention not to obey.
Seeing, however, that his forbearance had not the slightest
effect, by an awful and unspeakable intimation with his
twisted hand he warned off the foolish and infatuated
man ; but it was to no purpose. And in this way the
two went once slowly round the windlass ; when, resolved
at last no longer to retreat, bethinking him that he had
now forborne as much as comported with his humour,
the Lakeman paused on the hatches and thus spoke to
the officer :
1 " Mr. Radney, I will not obey you. Take that
hammer away, or look to yourself." But the predestin-
ated mate coming still closer to him, where the Lakeman
stood fixed, now shook the heavy hammer within an inch
of his teeth ; meanwhile repeating a string of insufferable
maledictions. Retreating not the thousandth part of an
inch ; stabbing him in the eye with the unflinching
poniard of his glance, Steelkilt, clenching his right hand
behind him and creepingly drawing it back, told his perse-
THE TOWN-HO'S STORY 315
cutor that if the hammer but grazed his cheek he (Steel-
kilt) would murder him. But, gentlemen, the fool had
been branded for the slaughter by the gods. Immediately
the hammer touched the cheek ; the next instant the
lower jaw of the mate was stove in his head ; he fell on
the hatch spouting blood like a whale.
* Ere the cry could go aft Steelkilt was shaking one of
the backstays leading far aloft to where two of his com-
rades were standing their mast-heads. They were both
Canallers.
' " Canallers ! " cried Don Pedro. " We have seen
many whale -ships in our harbours, but never heard of
your Canallers. Pardon : who and what are they ? "
' " Canallers, Don, are the boatmen belonging to our
grand Erie Canal. You must have heard of it."
' " Nay, Senor ; hereabouts in this dull, warm, most
lazy, and hereditary land, we know but little of your
vigorous North."
' " Ay ? Well then, Don, refill my cup. Your
chicha 's very fine ; and ere proceeding further I will tell
ye what our Canallers are ; for such information may
throw side-light upon my story."
4 For three hundred and sixty miles, gentlemen, through
the entire breadth of the state of New York ; through
numerous populous cities and most thriving villages ;
through long, dismal, uninhabited swamps, and affluent,
cultivated fields, unrivalled for fertility ; by billiard-
room and bar-room ; through the holy-of-holies of great
forests ; on Roman arches over Indian rivers ; through
sun and shade ; by happy hearts or broken ; through
all the wide contrasting scenery of those noble Mohawk
counties ; and especially, by rows of snow-white chapels,
whose spires stand almost like milestones, flows one con-
tinual stream of Venetianly corrupt and often lawless life.
There 's your true Ashantee, gentlemen ; there howl your
316 MOBY-DICK
pagans ; where you ever find them, next door to you ;
under the long-flung shadow, and the snug patronising
lee of churches. For by some curious fatality, as it is
often noted of your metropolitan freebooters that they
ever encamp around the halls of justice, so sinners, gentle-
men, most abound in holiest vicinities.
4 " Is that a friar passing ? " said Don Pedro, looking
downward into the crowded plaza, with humorous
concern.
' " Well for our northern friend, Dame Isabella's In-
quisition wanes in Lima," laughed Don Sebastian. " Pro-
ceed, Senor."
' " A moment ! Pardon ! " cried another of the com-
pany. " In the name of all us Limeese, I but desire to
express to you, sir sailor, that we have by no means over-
looked your delicacy in not substituting present Lima
for distant Venice in your corrupt comparison. Oh ! do
not bow and look surprised ; you know the proverb all
along this coast 'Corrupt as Lima.' It but bears out
your saying, too ; churches more plentiful than billiard-
tables, and forever open and ' Corrupt as Lima.' So,
too, Venice ; I have been there ; the holy city of the
blessed evangelist, St. Mark ! St. Dominic, purge it !
Your cup ! Thanks : here I refill ; now, you pour out
again."
1 Freely depicted in his own vocation, gentlemen, the
Canaller would make a fine dramatic hero, so abundantly
and picturesquely wicked is he. Like Mark Antony, for
days and days along his green-turfed, flowery Nile, he
indolently floats, openly toying with his red-cheeked
Cleopatra, ripening his apricot thigh upon the sunny deck.
But ashore, all this effeminacy is dashed. The brigandish
guise which the Canaller so proudly sports, his slouched
and gaily -ribboned hat, betoken his grand features. A
terror to the smiling innocence of the villages through
THE TOWN-HO'S STORY 317
which he floats ; his swart visage and bold swagger are
not unshunned in cities. Once a vagabond on his own
canal, I have received good turns from one of these
Canallers ; I thank him heartily ; would fain be not
ungrateful ; but it is often one of the prime redeeming
qualities of your man of violence, that at times he has
as stiff an arm to back a poor stranger in a strait, as to
plunder a wealthy one. In sum, gentlemen, what the
wildness of this canal life is, is emphatically evinced by
this ; that our wild whale-fishery contains so many of
its most finished graduates, and that scarce any race of
mankind, except Sydney men, are so much distrusted by
our whaling-captains. Nor does it at all diminish the
curiousness of this matter, that to many thousands of our
rural boys and young men born along its line, the pro-
bationary life of the Grand Canal furnishes the sole tran-
sition between quietly reaping in a Christian corn-field,
and recklessly ploughing the waters of the most barbaric
seas.
' " I see ! I see ! " impetuously exclaimed Don Pedro,
spilling his chicha upon his silvery ruffles. " No need to
travel ! The world 5 s one Lima. I had thought, now,
that at your temperate North the generations were cold
and holy as the hills. But the story."
' I left off, gentlemen, where the Lakeman shook the
backstay. Hardly had he done so, when he was sur-
rounded by the three junior mates and the four har-
pooneers, who all crowded him to the deck. But sliding
down the ropes like baleful comets, the two Canallers
rushed into the uproar, and sought to drag their man out
of it toward the forecastle. Others of the sailors joined
with them in this attempt, and a twisted turmoil ensued ;
while standing out of harm's way, the valiant captain
danced up and down with a whale-pike, calling upon his
officers to manhandle that atrocious scoundrel, and smoke
318 MOBY-DICK
him along to the quarter-deck. At intervals, he ran close
up to the revolving border of the confusion, and prying
into the heart of it with his pike, sought to prick out the
object of his resentment. But Steelkilt and his desper-
adoes were too much for them all ; they succeeded in
gaining the forecastle deck, where, hastily slewing about
three or four large casks in a line with the windlass, these
sea-Parisians entrenched themselves behind the barricade.
' " Come out of that, ye pirates ! " roared the captain,
now menacing them with a pistol in each hand, just
brought to him by the steward. " Come out of that, ye
cut -throats ! "
' Steelkilt leaped on the barricade, and striding up and
down there, defied the worst the pistols could do ; but
gave the captain to understand distinctly, that his (Steel-
kilt's) death would be the signal for a murderous mutiny
on the part of all hands. Fearing in his heart lest this
might prove but too true, the captain a little desisted, but
still commanded the insurgents instantly to return to
their duty.
' " Will you promise not to touch us, if we do ? "
demanded their ringleader.
' " Turn to ! turn to ! I make no promise ; to your
duty ! Do you want to sink the ship, by knocking off
at a time like this ? Turn to ! " and he once more raised
a pistol.
' " Sink the ship ! " cried Steelkilt. " Ay, let her
sink. Not a man of us turns to, unless you swear not to
raise a rope-yarn against us. What say ye, men 1 "
turning to his comrades. A fierce cheer was their response.
' The Lakeman now patrolled the barricade, all the
while keeping his eye on the captain, and jerking out such
sentences as these : "It 's not our fault ; we didn't
want it ; I told him to take his hammer away ; it was
boy 3 s business ; he might have known me before this ;
THE TOWN-HO'S STORY 319
I told him not to prick the buffalo ; I believe I have broken
a finger here against his cursed jaw ; ain't those mincing-
knives down in the forecastle there, men ? look to those
handspikes, my hearties. Captain, by God, look to
yourself ; say the word ; don't be a fool ; forget it all ;
we are ready to turn to ; treat us decently, and we 're
your men ; but we won't be flogged."
' " Turn to ! I make no promises, turn to, I say ! "
' " Look ye, now," cried the Lake man, flinging out his
arm toward him, " there are a few of us here (and I am
one of them) who have shipped for the cruise, d' ye see ;
now as you well know, sir, we can claim our discharge as
soon as the anchor is down ; so we don't want a row ; it 's
not our interest ; we want to be peaceable ; we are ready
to work, but we won't be flogged."
' " Turn to ! " roared the captain.
* Steelkilt glanced round him a moment, and then
said : " I tell you what it is now, captain, rather than
kill ye, and be hung for such a shabby rascal, we won't
lift a hand against ye unless ye attack us ; but till you
say the word about not flogging us, we don't do a hand's
turn."
6 " Down into the forecastle then, down with ye, I '11
keep ye there till ye 're sick of it. Down ye go."
' " Shall we ? " cried the ringleader to his men. Most
of them were against it ; but at length, in obedience to
Steelkilt, they preceded him down into their dark den,
growlingly disappearing, like bears into a cave.
' As the Lakeman's bare head was just level with the
planks, the captain and his posse leaped the barricade,
and rapidly drawing over the slide of the scuttle, planted
their group of hands upon it, and loudly called for the
steward to bring the heavy brass padlock belonging to the
companion-way. Then opening the slide a little, the
captain whispered something down the crack, closed it,
320 MOBY-DICK
and turned the key upon them ten in number leaving
on deck some twenty or more, who thus far had remained
neutral.
' All night a wide-awake watch was kept by all the
officers, forward and aft, especially about the forecastle
scuttle and fore-hatchway : at which last place it was
feared the insurgents might emerge, after breaking through
the bulkhead below. But the hours of darkness passed
in peace ; the men who still remained at their duty toiling
hard at the pumps, whose clinking and clanking at inter-
vals through the dreary night dismally resounded through
the ship.
' At sunrise the captain went forward, and knocking
on the deck, summoned the prisoners to work ; but with
a yell they refused. Water was then lowered down to
them, and a couple of handfuls of biscuit were tossed after
it ; when again turning the key upon them and pocketing
it, the captain returned to the quarter-deck. Twice
every day for three days this was repeated ; but on the
fourth morning a confused wrangling, and then a scuffling
was heard, as the customary summons was delivered ;
and suddenly four men burst up from the forecastle,
saying they were ready to turn to. The fetid closeness
of the ah*, and a famishing diet, united perhaps to some
fears of ultimate retribution, had constrained them to
surrender at discretion. Emboldened by this, the captain
reiterated his demand to the rest, but Steelkilt shouted
up to him a terrific hint to stop his babbling and betake
himself where he belonged. On the fifth morning three
others of the mutineers bolted up into the air from the
desperate arms below that sought to restrain them.
Only three were left.
' " Better turn to, now ? " said the captain, with a
heartless jeer.
' " Shut us up again, will ye ! " cried Steelkilt.
THE TOWN-HO'S STORY 321
4 " Oh ! certainly," said the captain, and the key clicked.
' It was at this point, gentlemen, that enraged by the
defection of seven of his former associates, and stung by the
mocking voice that had last hailed him, and maddened
by his long entombment in a place as black as the bowels
of despair ; it was then that Steelkilt proposed to the two
Canallers, thus far apparently of one mind with him, to
burst out of their hole at the next summoning of the
garrison ; and armed with their keen mincing-knives
(long, crescentic, heavy implements with a handle at each
end) run amuck from the bowsprit to the taffrail ; and if
by any devilishness of desperation possible, seize the ship.
For himself, he would do this, he said, whether they joined
him or not. That was the last night he should spend in
that den. But the scheme met with no opposition on
the part of the other two ; they swore they were ready for
that, or for any other mad thing, for anything in short
but a surrender. And what was more, they each insisted
upon being the first man on deck, when the time to make
the rush should come. But to this their leader as fiercely
objected, reserving that priority for himself ; particularly
as his two comrades would not yield, the one to the other,
in the matter ; and both of them could not be first, for
the ladder would but admit one man at a time. And
here, gentlemen, the foul play of these miscreants must
come out.
' Upon hearing the frantic project of their leader, each
in his own separate soul had suddenly lighted, it would
seem, upon the same piece of treachery, namely : to be
foremost in breaking out, in order to be the first of the
three, though the last of the ten, to surrender ; and there-
by secure whatever small chance of pardon such conduct
might merit. But when Steelkilt made known his deter-
mination still to lead them to the last, they in some way, by
some subtle chemistry of villainy, mixed their before secret
VOL. i, x
322 MOBY-DICK
treacheries together ; and when their leader fell into a
doze, verbally opened their souls to each other in three
sentences ; and bound the sleeper with cords, and gagged
him with cords ; and shrieked out for the captain at
midnight.
' Thinking murder at hand, and smelling in the dark
for the blood, he and all his armed mates and harpooneers
rushed for the forecastle. In a few minutes the scuttle
was opened, and, bound hand and foot, the still struggling
ringleader was shoved up into the air by his perfidious
allies, who at once claimed the honour of securing a man
who had been fully ripe for murder. But all these were
collared, and dragged along the deck like dead cattle ; and,
side by side, were seized up into the mizen rigging, like
three quarters of meat, and there they hung till morning.
" Damn ye," cried the captain, pacing to and fro before
them, " the vultures would not touch ye, ye villains ! "
' At sunrise he summoned all hands ; and separating
those who had rebelled from those who had taken no
part in the mutiny, he told the former that he had a good
mind to flog them all round thought, upon the whole,
he would do so he ought to justice demanded it ; but
for the present, considering their timely surrender, he
would let them go with a reprimand, which he accordingly
administered in the vernacular.
' " But as for you, ye carrion rogues," turning to the
three men in the rigging " for you, I mean to mince ye
up for the try -pots " ; and, seizing a rope, he applied it
with all his might to the backs of the two traitors, till
they yelled no more, but lifelessly hung their heads side-
ways, as the two crucified thieves are drawn.
4 " My wrist is sprained with ye ! " he cried, at last ;
" but there is still rope enough left for you, my fine
bantam, that wouldn't give up. Take that gag from his
mouth, and let us hear what he can say for himself."
THE TOWN-HO'S STORY 323
' For a moment the exhausted mutineer made a tremu-
lous motion of his cramped jaws, and then painfully
twisting round his head, said in a sort of hiss, " What I
say is this and mind it well if you flog me, I murder
you ! "
' " Say ye so ? then see how ye frighten me " and
the captain drew off with the rope to strike.
' " Best not," hissed the Lakeman.
' " But I must," and the rope was once more drawn
back for the stroke.
* Steelkilt here hissed out something, inaudible to all
but the captain ; who, to the amazement of all hands,
started back, paced the deck rapidly two or three times,
and then suddenly throwing down his rope, said, " I won't
do it let him go cut him down : d' ye hear ? "
' But as the junior mates were hurrying to execute the
order, a pale man, with a bandaged head, arrested them
Radney the chief mate. Ever since the blow, he had
lain in his berth ; but that morning, hearing the tumult
on the deck, he had crept out, and thus far had watched
the whole scene. Such was the state of his mouth, that
he could hardly speak ; but mumbling something about
his being willing and able to do what the captain dared not
attempt, he snatched the rope and advanced to his pinioned
foe.
* " You are a coward ! " hissed the Lakeman.
' " So I am, but take that." The mate was in the very
act of striking, when another hiss stayed his uplifted arm.
He paused : and then pausing no more, made good his
word, spite of Steelkilt 's threat, whatever that might have
been. The three men were then cut down, all hands were
turned to, and, sullenly worked by the moody seamen, the
iron pumps clanged as before.
' Just after dark that day, when one watch had retired
below, a clamour was heard in the forecastle : and the
324 MOBY-DICK
two trembling traitors running up, besieged the cabin
door, saying they durst not consort with the crew. En-
treaties, cuffs, and kicks could not drive them back, so
at their own instance they were put down in the ship's run
for salvation. Still, no sign of mutiny reappeared among
the rest. On the contrary, it seemed, that mainly at
Steelkilt's instigation, they had resolved to maintain
the strictest peacefulness, obey all orders to the last, and,
when the ship reached port, desert her in a body. But in
order to ensure the speediest end to the voyage, they all
agreed to another thing namely, not to sing out for
whales, in case any should be discovered. For, spite of
her leak, and spite of all her other perils, the Town-Ho
still maintained her mast-heads, and her captain was just
as willing to lower for a fish that moment, as on the day
his craft first struck the cruising -ground ; and Radney
the mate was quite as ready to change his berth for a boat,
and with his bandaged mouth seek to gag in death the
vital jaw of the whale.
' But though the Lakeman had induced the seamen to
adopt this sort of passiveness in their conduct, he kept
his own counsel (at least till all was over) concerning his
own proper and private revenge upon the man who had
stung him in the ventricles of his heart. He was in
Radney the chief mate's watch ; and as if the infatuated
man sought to run more than half-way to meet his doom,
after the scene at the rigging, he insisted, against the
express counsel of the captain, upon resuming the head
of his watch at night. Upon this, and one or two other
circumstances, Steelkilt systematically built the plan of his
revenge.
' During the night, Radney had an unseamanlike way
of sitting on the bulwarks of the quarter-deck, and leaning
his arm upon the gunwale of the boat which was hoisted
up there, a little above the ship's side. In this attitude,
THE TOWN-HO'S STORY 325
it was well known, he sometimes dozed. There was a
considerable vacancy between the boat and the ship, and
down between this was the sea. Steelkilt calculated his
time, and found that his next trick at the helm would
come round at two o'clock, in the morning of the third
day from that in which he had been betrayed. At his
leisure, he employed the interval in braiding something
very carefully in his watches below.
' " What are you making there ? " said a shipmate.
c " What do you think ? what does it look like ? "
' " Like a lanyard for your bag ; but it 's an odd one,
seems to me."
' " Yes, rather oddish," said the Lakeman, holding it
at arm's length before him ; " but I think it will answer.
Shipmate, I haven't enough twine, have you any ? "
' But there was none in the forecastle.
' " Then I must get some from old Had " ; and he rose
to go aft.
' " You don't mean to go a-begging to him I " said a
sailor.
' " Why not ? Do you think he won't do me a turn,
when it 's to help himself in the end, shipmate ? " and
going to the mate, he looked at him quietly, and asked
him for some twine to mend his hammock. It was given
him neither twine nor lanyard were seen again ; but
the next night an iron ball, closely netted, partly rolled
from the pocket of the Lakeman's monkey-jacket, as he
was tucking the coat into his hammock for a pillow.
Twenty-four hours after, his trick at the silent helm
nigh to the man who was apt to doze over the grave always
ready dug to the seaman's hand that fatal hour was then
to come ; and in the fore -ordaining soul of Steelkilt, the
mate was already stark and stretched as a corpse, with his
forehead crushed in.
4 But, gentlemen, a fool saved the would-be murderer
326 MOBY-DICK
from the bloody deed he had planned. Yet complete
revenge he had, and without being the avenger. For by
a mysterious fatality, Heaven itself seemed to step in to
take out of his hands into its own the damning thing he
would have done.
1 It was just between daybreak and sunrise of the
morning of the second day, when they were washing down
the decks, that a stupid Teneriffe man, drawing water in
the main-chains, all at once shouted out, " There she rolls !
there she rolls ! " Jesu, what a whale ! It was Mahv^JQick.
4 " Moby-Dick ! " cried Don Sebastian ; " St. Dominic !
sir sailor, but do whales have christenings ? Whom call
you Moby-Dick ? "
4 " A very white, and famous, and most deadly immortal
monster, Don ; but that would be too long a story."
4 " How ? how ? " cried all the young Spaniards,
crowding.
' " Nay, Dons, Dons nay, nay ! I cannot rehearse
that now. Let me get more into the air, sirs."
4 " Chicha ! the chicha ! " cried Don Pedro ; " our
vigorous friend looks faint ; fill up his empty glass ! "
4 No need, gentlemen ; one moment, and I proceed.
Now, gentlemen, so suddenly perceiving the snowy whale
within fifty yards of the ship forgetful of the compact
among the crew in the excitement of the moment, the
Teneriffe man had instinctively and involuntarily lifted
his voice for the monster, though for some little time past
it had been plainly beheld from the three sullen mast-heads.
All was now a frenzy. " The White Whale the White
Whale ! " was the cry from captain, mates, and har-
pooneers, who, undeterred by fearful rumours, were all
anxious to capture so famous and precious a fish ; while
the dogged crew eyed askance, and with curses, the appal-
ling beauty of the vast milky mass, that lit up by a hori-
zontal spangling sun, shifted and glistened like a living
THE TOWN-HO'S STORY 327
opal in the blue morning sea. Gentlemen, a strange
fatality pervades the whole career of these events, as if
verily mapped out before the world itself was charted.
The mutineer was the bowsman of the mate, and when
fast to a fish, it was his duty to sit next him, while Radney
stood up with his lance in the prow, and haul in or slacken
the line, at the word of command. Moreover, when the
four boats were lowered, the mate's got the start ; and
none howled more fiercely with delight than did Steelkilt,
as he strained at his oar. After a stiff pull, their har-
pooneer got fast, and, spear in hand, Radney sprang to
the bow. He was always a furious man, it seems, in a
boat. And now his bandaged cry was, to beach him
on the whale's topmost back. Nothing loath, his bows-
man hauled him up and up, through a blinding foam that
blent two whitenesses together ; till of a sudden the boat
struck as against a sunken ledge, and keeling over, spilled
out the standing mate. That instant, as he fell on the
whale's slippery back, the boat righted, and was dashed
aside by the swell, while Radney was tossed over into the
sea, on the other flank of the whale . He struck out through
the spray, and, for an instant, was dimly seen through
that veil, wildly seeking to remove himself from the eye
of Moby-Dick. But the whale rushed round in a sudden
maelstrom ; seized the swimmer between his jaws ; and
rearing high up with him, plunged headlong again, and
went down.
' Meantime, at the first tap of the boat's bottom, the
Lakeman had slackened the line, so as to drop astern from
the whirlpool ; calmly looking on, he thought his own
thoughts. But a sudden, terrific, downward jerking
of the boat, quickly brought his knife to the line. He
cut it ; and the whale was free. But, at some distance,
Moby-Dick rose again, with some tatters of Radney 's
red woollen shirt caught in the teeth that had destroyed
328 MOBY-DICK
him. All four boats gave chase again ; but the whale
eluded them, and finally wholly disappeared.
' In good time, the Town-Ho reached her port a savage,
solitary place where no civilised creature resided.
There, headed by the Lake man, all but five or six of the
foremast-men deliberately deserted among the palms ;
eventually, as it turned out, seizing a large double war-
canoe of the savages, and setting sail for some other
harbour.
4 The ship's company being reduced to but a handful,
the captain called upon the Islanders to assist him in the
laborious business of heaving down the ship to stop the
leak. But to such unresting vigilance over their danger-
ous allies was this small band of whites necessitated, both
by night and by day, and so extreme was the hard work
they underwent, that upon the vessel being ready again
for sea, they were in such a weakened condition that the
captain durst not put off with them in so heavy a vessel.
After taking counsel with his officers, he anchored the
ship as far off shore as possible ; loaded and ran out his
two cannon from the bows ; stacked his muskets on the
poop ; and warning the Islanders not to approach the
ship at their peril, took one man with him, and setting
the sail of his best whale-boat, steered straight before the
wind for Tahiti, five hundred miles distant, to procure
a reinforcement to his crew.
' On the fourth day of the sail, a large canoe was
descried, which seemed to have touched at a low isle of
corals. He steered away from it ; but the savage craft
bore down on him ; and soon the voice of Steelkilt hailed
him to heave to, or he would run him under water. The
captain presented a pistol. With one foot on each prow
of the yoked war-canoes, the Lakeman laughed him to
scorn ; assuring him that if the pistol so much as clicked
in the lock, he would bury him in bubbles and foam.
THE TOWN-HO'S STORY 329
' " What do you want of me ? " cried the captain.
' " Where are you bound ? and for what are you
bound ? " demanded Steelkilt ; "no lies."
' " I am bound to Tahiti for more men."
' " Very good. Let me board you a moment I come
in peace." With that he leaped from the canoe, swam to
the boat ; and climbing the gunwale, stood face to face
with the captain.
" Cross your arms, sir ; throw back your head. Now,
repeat after me. As soon as Steelkilt leaves me, I swear
to beach this boat on yonder island, and remain there six
days. If I do not, may lightnings strike me ! "
' " A pretty scholar," laughed the Lakeman. " Adios,
Senor ! " and leaping into the sea, he swam back to his
comrades.
' Watching the boat till it was fairly beached, and
drawn up to the roots of the cocoa-nut trees, Steelkilt
made sail again, and in due time arrived at Tahiti, his
own place of destination. There, luck befriended him ;
two ships were about to sail for France, and were provi-
dentially in want of precisely that number of men which
the sailor headed. They embarked ; and so forever got
the start of their former captain, had he been at all minded
to work them legal retribution.
' Some ten days after the French ships sailed, the whale-
boat arrived, and the captain was forced to enlist some of
the more civilised Tahitians, who had been somewhat
used to the sea. Chartering a small native schooner, he
returned with them to his vessel ; and finding all right
there, again resumed his cruisings.
' Where Steelkilt now is, gentlemen, none know ; but
upon the island of Nantucket, the widow of Radney still
turns to the sea which refuses to give up its dead ; still
in dreams sees the awful White Whale that destroyed
him. * * *
330 MOBY-DICK
' " Are you through ? " said Don Sebastian quietly.
1 " I am, Don."
6 " Then I entreat you, tell me if to the best of your
own convictions, this your story is in substance really
true ? It is so passing wonderful ! Did you get it from an
unquestionable source ? Bear with me if I seem to press."
' " Also bear with all of us, sir sailor ; for we all join
in Don Sebastian's suit," cried the company, with exceed-
ing interest.
' " Is there a copy of the Holy Evangelists hi the Golden
Inn, gentlemen ? "
' " Nay," said Don Sebastian ; " but I know a worthy
priest near by, who will quickly procure one for me. I
go for it ; but are you well advised ? this may grow too
serious."
' " Will you be so good as to bring the priest also, Don ? "
' " Though there are no Auto-da-Fes in Lima now,"
said one of the company to another ; "I fear our sailor
friend runs risk of the archiepiscopacy. Let us withdraw
more out of the moonlight. I see no need of this."
' " Excuse me for running after you, Don Sebastian ;
but may I also beg that you will be particular in procuring
the largest -sized Evangelists you can."
*******
' " This is the priest, he brings you the Evangelists,"
said Don Sebastian gravely, returning with a tall and
solemn figure.
' " Let me remove my hat. Now, venerable priest,
further into the light, and hold the Holy Book before me
that I may touch it.
' " So help me Heaven, and on my honour the story I
have told ye, gentlemen, is in substance and its great
items, true. I know it to be true ; it happened on this
ball ; I trod the ship ; I knew the crew ; I have seen and
talked with Steelkilt since the death of Radney."
CHAPTER LV
OF THE MONSTROUS PICTURES OF WHALES
I SHALL ere long paint to you as well as one can without
canvas, something like the true form of the whale as he
actually appears to the eye of the whaleman when in his
own absolute body the whale is moored alongside the
whale -ship so that he can be fairly stepped upon there.
It may be worth while, therefore, previously to advert
to those curious imaginary portraits of him which even
down to the present day confidently challenge the faith
of the landsman. It is time to set the world right in
this matter, by proving such pictures of the whale all
wrong.
It may be that the primal source of all those pictorial
delusions will be found among the oldest Hindu, Egyptian,
and Grecian sculptures. For ever since those inventive
but unscrupulous times when on the marble panellings
of temples, the pedestals of statues, and on shields,
medallions, cups, and coins, the dolphin was drawn in
scales of chain-armour like Saladin's, and a helmeted
head like St. George's ; ever since then has something
of the same sort of licence prevailed, not only in most
popular pictures of the whale, but in many scientific
presentations of him.
Now, by all odds, the most ancient extant portrait
anyways purporting to be the whale's, is to be found in
the famous cavern -pagoda of Elephanta, in India. The
Brahmins maintain that in the almost endless sculptures
of that immemorial pagoda, all the trades and pursuits,
331
332 MOBY-DICK
every conceivable avocation of man, were prefigured ages
before any of them actually came into being. No wonder,
then, that in some sort our noble profession of whaling
should have been there shadowed forth. The Hindu
whale referred to, occurs in a separate department of the
wall, depicting the incarnation of Vishnu in the form of
leviathan, learnedly known as the Matse Avatar. But
though this sculpture is half man and half whale, so as
only to give the tail of the latter, yet that small section
of him is all wrong. It looks more like the tapering tail
of an anaconda a than the broad palms of the true whale's
majestic flukes.
But go to the old galleries, and look now at a great
Christian painter's portrait of this fish ; for he succeeds
no better than the antediluvian Hindu. It is Guide's
picture of Perseus rescuing Andromeda from the sea-
monster or whale. Where did Guido get the model of
such a strange creature as that ? Nor does Hogarth, in
painting the same scene in his own ' Perseus Descending,'
make out one whit better. The huge corpulence of that
Hogarthian monster undulates on the surface, scarcely
drawing one inch of water. It has a sort of howdah on its
back, and its distended tusked mouth into which the
billows are rolling, might be taken for the Traitors' Gate
leading from the Thames by water into the Tower. Then,
there are the Prodromus whales of old Scotch Sibbald,
and Jonah's whale, as depicted in the prints of old Bibles
and the cuts of old primers. What shall be said of these ?
As for the bookbinder's whale winding like a vine-stalk
round the stock of a descending anchor as stamped and
gilded on the backs and title-pages of many books both
old and new that is a very picturesque but purely
fabulous creature, imitated, I take it, from the like figures
on antique vases. Though universally denominated a
dolphin, I nevertheless call this bookbinder's fish an
MONSTROUS PICTURES OF WHALES 333
attempt at a whale ; because it was so intended when the
device was first introduced. It was introduced by an old
Italian publisher somewhere about the 15th century,
during the Revival of Learning ; and in those days, and
even down to a comparatively late period, dolphins were
popularly supposed to be a species of the leviathan.
In the vignettes and other embellishments of some
ancient books you will at times meet with very curious
touches at the whale, where all manner of spouts, jets
d'eau, hot springs and cold, Saratoga and Baden-Baden,
come bubbling up from his unexhausted brain. In the
title-page of the original edition of the Advancement of
Learning you will find some curious whales.
But quitting all these unprofessional attempts, let us
glance at those pictures of leviathan purporting to be
sober, scientific delineations, by those who know. In
old Harris's collection of voyages there are some plates
of whales extracted from a Dutch book of voyages, A.D.
1671, entitled A Whaling Voyage to Spitzbergen in the ship
Jonas in the Whale, Peter Peterson of Friesland, master.
In one of those plates the whales, like great rafts of
logs, are represented lying among ice-isles, with white
bears running over their living backs. In another
plate, the prodigious blunder is made of representing
the whale with perpendicular flukes.
Then again, there is an imposing quarto, written by one
Captain Colnett, a post-captain in the English navy,
entitled A Voyage round Cape Horn into the South Seas,
for the purpose of extending the Spermaceti Whale Fisheries.
In this book is an outline purporting to be a ' Picture of a
Physeter or Spermaceti whale, drawn by scale from one
killed on the coast of Mexico, August 1793, and hoisted
on deck.' I doubt not the captain had this veracious
picture taken for the benefit of his marines. To mention
but one thing about it, let me say that it has an eye which
334 MOBY-DICK
applied, according to the accompanying scale, to a full-
grown sperm whale, would make the eye of that whale a
bow- window some five feet long. Ah, my gallant cap-
tain, why did ye not give us Jonah looking out of that eye !
Nor are the most conscientious compilations of Natural
History for the benefit of the young and tender, free from
the same heinousness of mistake. Look at that popular
work Goldsmith's Animated Nature. In the abridged
London edition of 1807, there are plates of an alleged
'whale' and a 'narwhale.' I do not wish to seem
inelegant, but this unsightly whale looks much like an
amputated sow ; and, as for the nar whale, one glimpse at
it is enough to amaze one, that in this nineteenth century
such a hippogrrff could be palmed for genuine upon any
intelligent public of schoolboys.
Then, again, in 1825, Bernard Germain, Count de Lace-
pede, a great naturalist, published a scientific systematised
whale book, wherein are several pictures of the different
species of the leviathan. All these are not only incorrect,
but the picture of the Mysticetus or Greenland whale
(that is to say, the right whale), even Scoresby, a long-
experienced man as touching that species, declares not
to have its counterpart in nature.
But the placing of the cap -sheaf to all this blundering
business was reserved for the scientific Frederick Cuvier,
brother to the famous Baron. In 1836, he published a
Natural History of Whales, in which he gives what he
calls a picture of the sperm whale. Before showing that
picture to any Nantucketer, you had best provide for
your summary retreat from Nantucket. In a word,
Frederick Cuvier's sperm whale is not a sperm whale,
but a squash. Of course, he never had the benefit of a
whaling voyage (such men seldom have), but whence he
derived that picture, who can tell ? Perhaps he got it
as his scientific predecessor in the same field, Desmarest,
MONSTROUS PICTURES OF WHALES 335
got one of his authentic abortions ; that is, from a Chinese
drawing. And what sort of lively lads with the pencil
those Chinese are, many queer cups and saucers inform us.
As for the sign-painters' whales seen in the streets
hanging over the shops of oil-dealers, what shall be said
of them ? They are generally Richard in. whales, with
dromedary humps, and very savage ; breakfasting on
three or four sailor tarts, that is whale-boats full of
mariners : their deformities floundering in seas of blood
and blue paint.
But these manifold mistakes in depicting the whale are
not so very surprising after all. Consider ! Most of the
scientific drawings have been taken from the stranded
fish ; and these are about as correct as a drawing of a
wrecked ship, with broken back, would correctly repre-
sent the noble animal itself in all its undashed pride of
hull and spars. Though elephants have stood for their
full-lengths, the living leviathan has never yet fairly
floated himself for his portrait. The living whale, in his
full majesty and significance, is only to be seen at sea in
unfathomable waters ; and afloat the vast bulk of him
is out of sight, like a launched line-of-battle ship ; and
out of that element it is a thing eternally impossible for
mortal man to hoist him bodily into the air, so as to
preserve all his mighty swells and undulations. And,
not to speak of the highly presumable difference of con-
tour between a young sucking whale and a full-grown
Platonian leviathan ; yet, even in the case of one of those
young sucking whales hoisted to a ship's deck, such is
then the outlandish, eel-like, limbered, varying shape of
him, that his precise expression the devil himself could
not catch.
But it may be fancied, that from the naked skeleton
of the stranded whale, accurate hints may be derived
touching his true form. Not at all. For it is one of the
336 MOBY-DICK
more curious things about this leviathan, that his skele-
ton gives very little idea of his general shape. Though
Jeremy Bentham's skeleton, which hangs for candelabra
in the library of one of his executors, correctly conveys
the idea of a burly -browed utilitarian old gentleman, with
all Jeremy's other leading personal characteristics ; yet
nothing of this kind could be inferred from any leviathan's
articulated bones. In fact, as the great Hunter says, the
mere skeleton of the whale bears the same relation to the
fully invested and padded animal as the insect does to
the chrysalis that so roundingly envelops it. This peculi-
arity is strikingly evinced in the head, as in some part of
this book will be incidentally shown. It is also very
curiously displayed in the side fin, the bones of which
almost exactly answer to the bones of the human hand,
minus only the thumb. This fin has four regular bone-
fingers, the index, middle, ring, and little finger. But all
these are permanently lodged in their fleshy covering,
as the human fingers in an artificial covering. ' However
recklessly the whale may sometimes serve us/ said
humorous Stubb one day, ' he can never be truly said to
handle us without mittens.'
For all these reasons, then, any way you may look at it,
you must needs conclude that the great leviathan is that
one creature in the world which must remain unpainted
to the last. True, one portrait may hit the mark much
nearer than another, but none can hit it with any very
considerable degree of exactness. So there is no earthly
way of finding out precisely what the whale really looks
like. And the only mode in which you can derive even
a tolerable idea of his living contour, is by going a-whaling
yourself ; but by so doing, you run no small risk of being
eternally stove and sunk by him. Wherefore, it seems to
me you had best not be too fastidious in your curiosity
touching this leviathan.
CHAPTER LVI
OF THE LESS ERRONEOUS PICTURES OF WHALES, AND THE
TRUE PICTURES OF WHALING SCENES
IN connection with the monstrous pictures of whales, I
am strongly tempted here to enter upon those still more
monstrous stories of them which are to be found in certain
books, both ancient and modern, especially hi Pliny,
Purchas, Hakluyt, Harris, Cuvier, etc. But I pass that
matter by.
I know of only four published outlines of the great
sperm whale : Colnett's, Huggins's, Frederick Cuvier 's,
and Beale's. In the previous chapter Colnett and Cuvier
have been referred to. Huggins's is far better than theirs ;
but, by great odds, Beale's is the best. All Beale's draw-
ings of this whale are good, excepting the middle figure
in the picture of three whales in various attitudes, capping
his second chapter. His frontispiece, boats attacking
sperm whales, though no doubt calculated to excite the
civil scepticism of some parlour men, is admirably correct
and lifelike in its general effect. Some of the sperm
whale drawings in J. Ross Browne are pretty correct in
contour ; but they are wretchedly engraved. That is
not his fault, though.
Of the right whale, the best outline pictures are in
Scoresby ; but they are drawn on too small a scale to
convey a desirable impression. He has but one picture
of whaling scenes, and this is a sad deficiency, because it
is by such pictures only, when at all well done, that you
VOL. I. Y
338 MOBY-DICK
can derive anything like a truthful idea of the living whale
as seen by his living hunters.
But, taken for all in all, by far the finest, though in some
details not the most correct, presentations of whales and
whaling scenes to be anywhere found, are two large
French engravings, well executed, and taken from paint-
ings by one Garnery. Respectively, they represent
attacks on the sperm and right whale. In the first en-
graving a noble sperm whale is depicted in full majesty
of might, just risen beneath the boat from the profundities
of the ocean, and bearing high in the air upon his back the
terrific wreck of the stoven planks. The prow of the boat
is partially unbroken, and is drawn just balancing upon
the monster's spine ; and standing in that prow, for that
one single incomputable flash of time, you behold an oars-
man, half shrouded by the incensed boiling spout of the
whale, and in the act of leaping, as if from a precipice.
The action of the whole thing is wonderfully good and true.
The half -emptied line-tub floats on the whitened sea ; the
wooden poles of the spilled harpoons obliquely bob in it ;
the heads of the swimming crew are scattered about the
whale in contrasting expressions of affright ; while hi the
black stormy distance the ship is bearing down upon the
scene. Serious fault might be found with the anatomical
details of this whale, but let that pass ; since, for the life
of me, I could not draw so good a one.
In the second engraving, the boat is in the act of draw-
ing alongside the barnacled flank of a large running right
whale, that rolls his black weedy bulk in the sea like some
mossy rock-slide from the Patagonian cliffs. His jets
are erect, full, and black like soot ; so that from so
abounding a smoke in the chimney, you would think there
must be a brave supper cooking in the great bowels below.
Sea-fowls are pecking at the small crabs, shell-fish, and
other sea-candies and macaroni, which the right whale
LESS ERRONEOUS PICTURES 339
sometimes carries on his pestilent back. And all the
while the thick-lipped leviathan is rushing through the
deep, leaving tons of tumultuous white curds in his wake,
and causing the slight boat to rock in the swells like a
skiff caught nigh the paddle-wheels of an ocean steamer.
Thus, the foreground is all raging commotion ; but
behind, in admirable artistic contrast, is the glassy
level of a sea becalmed, the drooping unstarched sails
of the powerless ship, and the inert mass of a dead
whale, a conquered fortress, with the flag of capture
lazily hanging from the whale-pole inserted into his
spout -hole.
Who Garnery the painter is, or was, I know not. But
my life for it he was either practically conversant with his
subject, or else marvellously tutored by some experienced
whaleman. The French are the lads for painting action.
Go and gaze upon all the paintings of Europe, and where
will you find such a gallery of living and breathing com-
motion on canvas, as in that triumphal hall at Versailles ;
where the beholder fights his way, pell-mell, through the
consecutive great battles of France ; where every sword
seems a flash of the Northern Lights, and the successive
armed kings and emperors dash by, like a charge of
crowned centaurs ? Not wholly unworthy of a place in
that gallery, are those sea-battle pieces of Garnery.
The natural aptitude of the French for seizing the
picturesqueness of things seems to be peculiarly evinced
in what paintings and engravings they have of their
whaling scenes. With not one tenth of England's experi-
ence in the fishery, and not the thousandth part of that
of the Americans, they have nevertheless furnished both
nations with the only finished sketches at all capable
of conveying the real spirit of the whale-hunt. For the
most part, the English and American whale draughtsmen
seem entirely content with presenting the mechanical
340 MOBY-DICK
outline of things, such as the vacant profile of the whale ;
which, so far as picturesqueness of effect is concerned, is
about tantamount to sketching the profile of a pyramid.
Even Scoresby, the justly renowned right whaleman,
after giving us a stiff full-length of the Greenland whale,
and three or four delicate miniatures of narwhales and
porpoises, treats us to a series of classical engravings of
boat-hooks, chopping-knives, and grapnels ; and with the
microscopic diligence of a Leuwenhoeck submits to the
inspection of a shivering world ninety-six facsimiles of
magnified Arctic snow crystals. I mean no disparagement
to the excellent voyager (I honour him for a veteran), but
in so important a matter it was certainly an oversight not
to have procured for every crystal a sworn affidavit taken
before a Greenland Justice of the Peace.
In addition to those fine engravings from Garnery, there
are two other French engravings worthy of note, by some-
one who subscribes himself ' H. Durand.' One of them,
though not precisely adapted to our present purpose,
nevertheless deserves mention on other accounts. It is a
quiet noon-scene among the isles of the Pacific ; a French
whaler anchored, inshore, in a calm, and lazily taking
water on board ; the loosened sails of the ship, and the
long leaves of the palms in the background, both drooping
together in the breezeless air. The effect is very fine,
when considered with reference to its presenting the hardy
fishermen under one of their few aspects of oriental
repose. The other engraving is quite a different affair :
the ship hove-to upon the open sea, and in the very heart
of the leviathanic life, with a right whale alongside ; the
vessel (in the act of cutting -in) hove over to the monster
as if to a quay ; and a boat, hurriedly pushing off from
this scene of activity, is about giving chase to whales in
the distance. The harpoons and lances lie levelled for
use ; three oarsmen are just setting the mast in its hole ;
LESS ERRONEOUS PICTURES 341
while from a sudden roll of the sea, the little craft stands
half -erect out of the water, like a rearing horse. From
the ship, the smoke of the torments of the boiling whale
is going up like the smoke over a village of smithies ; and
to windward, a black cloud, rising up with earnest of
squalls and rains, seems to quicken the activity of the
excited seamen.
CHAPTER LVII
OF WHALES IN PAINT ; IN TEETH ; IN WOOD ; IN SHEET-
IRON ; IN STONE ; IN MOUNTAINS ; IN STARS
ON Tower Hill, as you go down to the London docks, you
may have seen a crippled beggar (or kedger, as the sailors
say) holding a painted board before him, representing
the tragic scene in which he lost his leg. There are three
whales and three boats ; and one of the boats (presumed
to contain the missing leg in all its original integrity) is
being crunched by the jaws of the foremost whale. Any
time these ten years, they tell me, has that man held up
that picture, and exhibited that stump to an incredulous
world. But the time of his justification has now come.
His three whales are as good whales as were ever published
in Wapping, at any rate ; and his stump as unquestion-
able a stump as any you will find in the Western clearings.
But, though forever mounted on that stump, never a
stump-speech does the poor whaleman make ; but, with
downcast eyes, stands ruefully contemplating his own
amputation.
Throughout the Pacific, and also in Nantucket, and
New Bedford, and Sag Harbour, you will come across
lively sketches of whales and whaling scenes, graven by
the fishermen themselves on sperm whale-teeth, or ladies'
busks wrought out of the right whalebone, and other like
skrimshander articles, as the whalemen call the numerous
little ingenious contrivances they elaborately carve out
of the rough material, in their hours of ocean leisure.
Some of them have little boxes of dentistical-looking
342
WHALES VARIOUSLY REPRESENTED 343
implements, specially intended for the skrimshandering
business. But, in general, they toil with their jack-
knives alone ; and, with that almost omnipotent tool of
the sailor, they will turn you out anything you please,
in the way of a mariner's fancy.
Long exile from Christendom and civilisation inevitably
restores a man to that condition in which God placed him,
i.e. what is called savagery. Your true whale-hunter is as
much a savage as an Iroquois. I myself am a savage,
owning no allegiance but to the King of the Cannibals ;
and ready at any moment to rebel against him.
Now, one of the peculiar characteristics of the savage
in his domestic hours, is his wonderful patience of industry.
An ancient Hawaiian war-club or spear-paddle, in its full
multiplicity and elaboration of carving, is as great a
trophy of human perseverance as a Latin lexicon. For,
with but a bit of broken sea-shell or a shark's tooth, that
miraculous intricacy of wooden net work has been achieved ;
and it has cost steady years of steady application.
As with the Hawaiian savage, so with the white sailor-
savage. With the same marvellous patience, and with
the same single shark's tooth, of his one poor jack-knife,
he will carve you a bit of bone sculpture, not quite as
workmanlike, but as close packed in its maziness of
design, as the Greek savage, Achilles's shield ; and full
of barbaric spirit and suggestiveness, as the prints of that
fine old Dutch savage, Albert Durer.
Wooden whales, or whales cut in profile out of the
small dark slabs of the noble South Sea war-wood, are
frequently met with in the forecastles of American whalers.
Some of them are done with much accuracy.
At some old gable-roofed country houses you will see
brass whales hung by the tail for knockers to the roadside
door. When the porter is sleepy, the anvil-headed whale
would be best. But these knocking whales are seldom
344 MOBY-DICK
remarkable as faithful essays. On the spires of some old-
fashioned churches you will see sheet-iron whales placed
there for weather-cocks ; but they are so elevated, and
besides that are to all intents and purposes so labelled
with ' Hands off ! ' you cannot examine them closely
enough to decide upon their merit.
In bony, ribby regions of the earth, where at the base
of high broken cliffs masses of rock lie strewn in fantastic
groupings upon the plain, you will often discover images
as of the petrified forms of the leviathan partly merged
in grass, which of a windy day breaks against them in a
surf of green surges.
Then, again, in mountainous countries where the
traveller is continually girdled by amphitheatrical
heights ; here and there from some lucky point of view
you will catch passing glimpses of the profiles of whales
defined along the undulating ridges. But you must be a
thorough whaleman, to see these sights ; and not only
that, but if you wish to return to such a sight again, you
must be sure and take the exact intersecting latitude and
longitude of your first standpoint, else so chance-like are
such observations of the hills, that your precise, previous
standpoint would require a laborious rediscovery ; like
the Soloma islands, which still remain incognita, though
once high-ruffed Mendanna trod them and old Figuera
chronicled them.
Nor when expandingly lifted by your subject, can you
fail to trace out great whales in the starry heavens, and
boats in pursuit of them ; as when long filled with
thoughts of war the Eastern nations saw armies locked
in battle among the clouds. Thus at the North have I
chased leviathan round and round the Pole with the
revolutions of the bright points that first defined him to
me. And beneath the effulgent Antarctic skies I have
boarded the Argo-Navis, and joined the chase against
WHALES VARIOUSLY REPRESENTED 345
the starry Cetus far beyond the utmost stretch of Hydras
and the Flying Fish.
With a frigate's anchors for my bridle -bits and fasces
of harpoons for spurs, would I could mount that whale
and leap the topmost skies, to see whether the fabled
heavens with all their countless tents really lie encamped
beyond my mortal sight !
CHAPTER LVII1
BRIT
STEERING north-eastward from the Crozetts, we fell in with
vast meadows of brit, the minute, yellow substance upon
which the right whale largely feeds. For leagues and
leagues it undulated round us, so that we seemed to be
sailing through boundless fields of ripe and golden wheat.
On the second day, numbers of right whales were seen,
who, secure from the attack of a sperm whaler like the
Pequod, with open jaws sluggishly swam through the brit,
which, adhering to the fringing fibres of that wondrous
Venetian blind in their mouths, was in that manner
separated from the water that escaped at the lip.
As morning mowers, who side by side slowly arid
seethingly advance their scythes through the long wet
grass of marshy meads ; even so these monsters swam,
making a strange, grassy, cutting sound ; and leaving
behind them endless swaths of blue upon the yellow
sea. 1
But it was only the sound they made as they parted
the brit which at all reminded one of mowers. Seen from
the mast-heads, especially when they paused and were
stationary for a while, their vast black forms looked more
like lifeless masses of rock than anything else. And as
in the great hunting countries of India, the stranger at a
1 That part of the sea known among whalemen as the ' Brazil Banks '
does not bear that name as the Banks of Newfoundland do, because of
there being shallows and soundings there, but because of this remarkable
meadow-like appearance, caused by the vast drifts of brit continually
floating in those latitudes, where the right whale is often chased.
346
BRIT 347
distance will sometimes pass on the plains recumbent
elephants without knowing them to be such, taking them
for bare, blackened elevations of the soil ; even so, often,
with him who for the first time beholds this species of
the leviathans of the sea. And even when recognised at
last, their immense magnitude renders it very hard really
to believe that such bulky masses of overgrowth can
possibly be instinct, in all parts, with the same sort of life
that lives in a dog or a horse.
Indeed, in other respects, you can hardly regard any
creatures of the deep with the same feelings that you do
those of the shore. For though some old naturalists have
maintained that all creatures of the land are of their kind
in the sea ; and though taking a broad general view of
the thing, this may very well be ; yet coming to specialities,
where, for example, does the ocean furnish any fish that
in disposition answers to the sagacious kindness of the
dog ? The accursed shark alone can in any generic
respect be said to bear comparative analogy to him.
But though, to landsmen in general, the native in-
habitants of the seas have ever been regarded with
emotions unspeakably unsocial and repelling ; though we
know the sea to be an everlasting terra incognita, so that
Columbus sailed over numberless unknown worlds to
discover his one superficial western one ; though, by vast
odds, the most terrific of all mortal disasters have im-
memorially and indiscriminately befallen tens and
hundreds of thousands of those who have gone upon the
waters ; though but a moment's consideration will teach,
that however baby man may brag of his science and skill,
and however much, in a flattering future, that science and
skill may augment ; yet forever and forever, to the crack
of doom, the sea will insult and murder him, and pulverise
the stateliest, stiffest frigate he can make ; nevertheless,
by the continual repetition of these very impressions,
348 MOBY-DICK
man has lost that sense of the full awfulness of the sea
which aboriginally belongs to it.
The jirst boat we read of, floated on an ocean, that with
Portuguese vengeance had whelmed a whole world with-
out leaving so much as a widow. That same ocean rolls
now ; that same ocean destroyed the wrecked ships of
last year. Yea, foolish mortals, Noah's flood is not yet
subsided ; two -thirds of the fair world it yet covers.
Wherein differ the sea and the land, that a miracle
upon one is not a miracle upon the other ? Preternatural
terrors rested upon the Hebrews, when under the feet of
Korah and his company the live ground opened and
swallowed them up forever ; yet not a modern sun ever
sets, but in precisely the same manner the live sea swallows
up ships and crews.
But not only is the sea such a foe to man who is an alien
to it, but it is also a fiend to its own offspring ; worse than
the Persian host who murdered his own guests ; sparing
not the creatures which itself hath spawned. Like a
savage tigress that tossing in the jungle overlays her
own cubs, so the sea dashes even the mightiest whales
against the rocks, and leaves them there side by side with
the split wrecks of ships. No mercy, no power but its
own controls it. Panting and snorting like a mad battle-
steed that has lost its rider, the masterless ocean overruns
the globe.
Consider the subtleness of the sea ; how its most
dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the
most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest
tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and
beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the
dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks.
Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the
sea ; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying
on eternal war since the world began.
BRIT 349
Consider all this ; and then turn to this green, gentle,
and most docile earth ; consider them both, the sea
and the land ; and do you not find a strange analogy to
something in yourself ? For as this appalling ocean
surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there
lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encom-
passed by all the horrors of the half -known life. God
keep thee ! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never
return !
CHAPTER LIX
SQUID
SLOWLY wading through the meadows of brit, the Pequod
still held on her way north-eastward toward the island
of Java ; a gentle air impelling her keel, so that in the
surrounding serenity her three tall tapering masts mildly
waved to that languid breeze, as three mild palms on a
plain. And still, at wide intervals in the silvery night,
the lonely, alluring jet would be seen.
But one transparent blue morning, when a stillness
almost preternatural spread over the sea, however un-
attended with any stagnant calm ; when the long bur-
nished sun-glade on the waters seemed a golden finger
laid across them, enjoining some secrecy ; when the
slippered waves whispered together as they softly ran on ;
in this profound hush of the visible sphere a strange spectre
was seen by Daggoo from the mainmast-head.
In the distance, a great white mass lazily rose, and rising
higher and higher, and disentangling itself from the azure,
at last gleamed before our prow like a snow-slide, new slid
from the hills. Thus glistening for a moment, as slowly
it subsided, and sank. Then once more arose, and silently
gleamed. It seemed not a whale ; and yet is this Moby-
Dick ? thought Daggoo. Again the phantom went down,
but on reappearing once more, with a stiletto-like cry that
startled every man from his nod, the negro yelled out
4 There ! there again ! there she breaches ! right ahead !
The White Whale, the White Whale ! '
Upon this, the seamen rushed to the yard-arms, as in
swarming-time the bees rush to the boughs. Bareheaded
in the sultry sun, Ahab stood on the bowsprit, and with one
350
SQUID 351
hand pushed far behind in readiness to wave his orders to
the helmsman, cast his eager glance in the direction indi-
cated aloft by the outstretched motionless arm of Daggoo.
Whether the flitting attendance of the one still and
solitary jet had gradually worked upon Ahab, so that he
was now prepared to connect the ideas of mildness and
repose with the first sight of the particular whale he
pursued ; however this was, or whether his eagerness
betrayed him ; whichever way it might have been, no
sooner did he distinctly perceive the white mass, than with
a quick intensity he instantly gave orders for lowering.
The four boats were soon on the water ; Ahab's in
advance, and all swiftly pulling toward their prey. Soon
it went down, and while, with oars suspended, we were
awaiting its reappearance, lo ! in the same spot where it
sank, once more it slowly rose. Almost forgetting for
the moment all thoughts of Moby-Dick, we now gazed
at the most wondrous phenomenon which the secret seas
have hitherto revealed to mankind. A vast pulpy mass,
furlongs in length and breadth, of a glancing cream-colour,
lay floating on the water, innumerable long arms radiating
from its centre, and curling and twisting like a nest of
anacondas, as if blindly to clutch at any hapless object
within reach. No perceptible face or front did it have ;
no conceivable token of either sensation or instinct ; but
undulated there on the billows, an unearthly, formless,
chance-like apparition of life.
As with a low sucking sound it slowly disappeared again,
Starbuck still gazing at the agitated waters where it had
sunk, with a wild voice exclaimed ' Almost rather had
I seen Moby-Dick and fought him, than to have seen thee,
thou white ghost ! '
' What was it, sir ? ' said Flask.
' The great live squid, which, they say, few whale-ships
ever beheld, and returned to their ports to tell of it.'
352 MOBY-DICK
But Ahab said nothing ; turning his boat, he sailed
back to the vessel ; the rest as silently following.
Whatever superstitions the sperm whalemen in general
have connected with the sight of this object, certain it is,
that a glimpse of it being so very unusual, that circum-
stance has gone far to invest it with portent ousness. So
rarely is it beheld, that though one and all of them declare
it to be the largest animated thing in the ocean, yet very
few of them have any but the most vague ideas concern-
ing its true nature and form ; notwithstanding, they
believe it to furnish to the sperm whale his only food.
For though other species of whales find their food above
water, and may be seen by man in the act of feeding, the
spermaceti whale obtains his whole food in unknown
zones below the surface ; and .only by inference is it
that any one can tell of what, precisely, that food consists.
At times, when closely pursued, he will disgorge what are
supposed to be the detached arms of the squid ; some of
them thus exhibited exceeding twenty and thirty feet in
length. They fancy that the monster to which these arms
belonged ordinarily clings by them to the bed of the ocean ;
and that the sperm whale, unlike other species, is supplied
with teeth in order to attack and tear it.
There seems some ground to imagine that the great
Kraken of Bishop Pontoppodan may ultimately resolve
itself into Squid. The manner in which the Bishop de-
scribes it, as alternately rising and sinking, with some
other particulars he narrates, in all this the two corre-
spond. But much abatement is necessary with respect
to the incredible bulk he assigns it.
By some naturalists who have vaguely heard rumours
of the mysterious creature, here spoken of, it is included
among the class of cuttle-fish, to which, indeed, in certain
external respects it would seem to belong, but only as the
Anak of the tribe.
CHAPTER LX
THE LINE
WITH reference to the whaling scene shortly to be de-
scribed, as well as for the better understanding of all
similar scenes elsewhere presented, I have here to speak
of the magical, sometimes horrible whale-line.
The line originally used in the fishery was of the best
hemp, slightly vapoured with tar, not impregnated with
it, as in the case of ordinary ropes ; for while tar, as
ordinarily used, makes the hemp more pliable to the rope-
maker, and also renders the rope itself more convenient
to the sailor for common ship use ; yet, not only would
the ordinary quantity too much stiffen the whale-line for
the close coiling to which it must be subjected ; but as
most seamen are beginning to learn, tar in general by
no means adds to the rope's durability or strength, how-
ever much it may give it compactness and gloss.
Of late years the Manilla rope has in the American
fishery almost entirely superseded hemp as a material
for whale-lines ; for, though not so durable as hemp, it
is stronger, and far more soft and elastic ; and I will add
(since there is an aesthetics in all things), is much more
handsome and becoming to the boat, than hemp. Hemp
is a dusky, dark fellow, a sort of Indian ; but Manilla
is as a golden-haired Circassian to behold.
The whale-line is only two-thirds of an inch in thickness.
At first sight, you would not think it so strong as it really
is. By experiment its one and fifty yarns will each sus-
pend a weight of one hundred and twenty pounds ; so
VOL. i. z
354 MOBY-DICK
that the whole rope will bear a strain nearly equal to three
tons. In length, the common sperm whale-line measures
something over two hundred fathoms. Toward the
stern of the boat it is spirally coiled away in the tub, not
like the worm-pipe of a still though, but so as to form one
round, cheese-shaped mass of densely bedded 'sheaves,'
or layers of concentric spiralisations, without any hollow
but the 'heart/ or minute vertical tube formed at the
axis of the cheese. As the least tangle or kink in the
coiling would, in running out, infallibly take somebody's
arm, leg, or entire body off, the utmost precaution is
used in stowing the line in its tub. Some harpooneers
will consume almost an entire morning in this business,
carrying the line high aloft and then reeving it downward
through a block toward the tub, so as in the act of coiling
to free it from all possible wrinkles and twists.
In the English boats two tubs are used instead of one ;
the same line being continuously coiled in both tubs.
There is some advantage in this ; because these twin -tubs
being so small they fit more readily into the boat, and do
not strain it so much ; whereas, the American tub, nearly
three feet in diameter and of proportionate depth, makes
a rather bulky freight for a craft whose planks are but
one half-inch in thickness ; for the bottom of the whale-
boat is like critical ice, which will bear up a considerable
distributed weight, but not very much of a concentrated
one. When the painted canvas cover is clapped on the
American line-tub, the boat looks as if it were pulling off
with a prodigious great wedding-cake to present to the
whales.
Both ends of the line are exposed ; the lower end
terminating in an eye -splice or loop coming up from the
bottom against the side of the tub, and hanging over
its edge completely disengaged from everything. This
arrangement of the lower end is necessary on two accounts.
THE LINE 355
First : In order to facilitate the fastening to it of an
additional line from a neighbouring boat, in case the
stricken whale should sound so deep as to threaten to
carry off the entire line originally attached to the har-
poon. In these instances, the whale of course is shifted
like a mug of ale, as it were, from the one boat to the
other ; though the first boat always hovers at hand to
assist its consort. Second : This arrangement is indis-
pensable for common safety's sake ; for were the lower
end of the line in any way attached to the boat, and were
the whale then to run the line out to the end almost in a
single, smoking minute as he sometimes does, he would
not stop there, for the doomed boat would infallibly
be dragged down after him into the profundity of the sea ;
and in that case no town -crier would ever find her again.
Before lowering the boat for the chase, the upper end
of the line is taken aft from the tub, and passing round the
logger-head there, is again carried forward the entire
length of the boat, resting crosswise upon the loom or
handle of every man's oar, so that it jogs against his wrist
in rowing ; and also passing between the men, as they
alternately sit at the opposite gunwales, to the leaded
chocks or grooves in the extreme pointed prow of the boat,
where a wooden pin or skewer the size of a common quill,
prevents it from slipping out. From the chocks it hangs
in a slight festoon over the bows, and is then passed inside
the boat again ; and some ten or twenty fathoms (called
box-line) being coiled upon the box in the bows, it con-
tinues its way to the gunwale still a little further aft, and
is then attached to the short -warp the rope which is
immediately connected with the harpoon ; but previous
to that connection, the short -warp goes through sundry
mystifications too tedious to detail.
Thus the whale-line folds the whole boat in its compli-
cated coils, twisting and writhing around it in almost
356 MOBY-DICK
every direction. All the oarsmen are involved in its
perilous contortions ; so that to the timid eye of the
landsman, they seem as Indian jugglers, with the deadliest
snakes sportively festooning their limbs. Nor can any
son of mortal woman, for the first time, seat himself amid
those hempen intricacies, and while straining his utmost
at the oar, bethink him that at any unknown instant the
harpoon may be darted, and all these horrible contortions
be put in play like ringed lightnings ; he cannot be thus
circumstanced without a shudder that makes the very
marrow in his bones to quiver in him like a shaken jelly.
Yet habit strange thing ! what cannot habit accom-
plish ? Gayer sallies, more merry mirth, better jokes,
and brighter repartees, you never heard over your
mahogany, than you will hear over the half-inch white
cedar of the whale-boat, when thus hung in hangman's
nooses ; and, like the six burghers of Calais before King
Edward, the six men composing the crew pull into the
jaws of death, with a halter around every neck, as you
may say.
Perhaps a very little thought will now enable you to
account for those repeated whaling disasters some few
of which are casually chronicled of this man or that man
being taken out of the boat by the line, and lost. For,
when the line is darting out, to be seated then in the boat
is like being seated in the midst of the manifold whizzings
of a steam-engine in full play, when every flying beam,
and shaft, and wheel, is grazing you. It is worse ; for
you cannot sit motionless in the heart of these perils,
because the boat is rocking like a cradle, and you are
pitched one way and the other, without the slightest
warning ; and only by a certain self-adjusting buoyancy
and simultaneousness of volition and action can you
escape being made a Mazeppa of, and run away with where
the all-seeing sun himself could never pierce you out.
THE LINE 357
Again : as the profound calm which only apparently
precedes and prophesies of the storm is perhaps more
awful than the storm itself ; for, indeed, the calm
is but the wrapper and envelope of the storm ; and con-
tains it in itself, as the seemingly harmless rifle holds the
fatal powder, and the ball, and the explosion ; so the
graceful repose of the line, as it silently serpentines about
the oarsmen before being brought into actual play this
is a thing which carries more of true terror than any other
aspect of this dangerous affair. But why say more ?
All men live enveloped in whale -lines. All are born with
halters round their necks ; but it is only when caught
in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realise
the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life. And if you
be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you
would not at heart feel one whit more of terror, than
though seated before your evening fire with a poker, and
not a harpoon, by your side.
END OF VOL. I.
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UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
PS Melville,, Herman
2384 Moby-Dick
M6
1922
v.l